Whenever I set up a new browser, I always have to copy over the custom search engines (at chrome://settings/searchEngines) because for some reason, Import/Export User Settings doesn’t include these. There are ways to import and export these from the filesystem in an internal sqlite database that Chrom{e,ium} uses, but it’s not guaranteed to work in the future.
The “Shortcut” works by typing the it in the browser’s address bar (such as :w for Wikipedia), followed by a space, then your search query. The choices for “Shortcut"s are just my personal preferences. Use whatever you can remember, and you don’t need to prefix them with a colon; once again, that’s just my preference. This document is mostly for my personal reference.
| Search engine | Shortcut | URL with %s in place of query |
|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia (en) | :w | https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Search&search=%s |
| Wiktionary (en) | :d | https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Search&search=%s |
| I’m Feeling Lucky | ! | https://duckduckgo.com/?hps=1&q=%5C%s&ia=web |
| YouTube | :yt | https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%s&page={startPage?}&utm_source=opensearch |
| Amazon | :amzn | https://www.amazon.com/s?k=%s |
| cppreference | :cxx | https://en.cppreference.com/mwiki/index.php?title=Special:Search&search=%s |
| Python3 docs | :py | https://docs.python.org/3/search.html?q=%s |
| Java JDK docs | :jdk | https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/22/docs/api/search.html?q=%s |
| Github Code Search | :gh | https://github.com/search?q=%s&type=code |
| NixOS packages | :nixpkgs | https://search.nixos.org/packages?channel=24.05&sort=relevance&query=%s |
| NixOS options | :nixopts | https://search.nixos.org/options?channel=24.05&sort=relevance&query=%s |
| NixOS wiki | :nixwiki | https://wiki.nixos.org/w/index.php?search=%s&title=Special%3ASearch |
| ArchWiki | :arch | https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Special:Search?search=%s |
| ports.macports.org | :ports | https://ports.macports.org/search?q=%s&name=on |
| Alpine packages | :alpine | https://pkgs.alpinelinux.org/packages?name=%s&branch=edge&repo=&arch=&maintainer= |
| Docker Hub | :dockerhub | https://hub.docker.com/search?q=%s |
| X (Twitter) | :x | https://twitter.com/search?q=%s |
| Yahoo! Finance | :yf | https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/%s?&.tsrc=fin-srch |
| Crates.io | :crates | https://crates.io/search?q=%s |
| Docs.rs | :docsrs | https://docs.rs/releases/search?query=%s |
| Rust std docs | :ruststd | https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/?search=%s |
| CMake docs | :cmake | https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/search.html?q=%s |
| Debian packages | :deb | https://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=%s&searchon=names&suite=bookworm§ion=all |
| Perplexity.ai | :px | https://www.perplexity.ai/search?s=o&q=%s |
| Bing | :b | https://www.bing.com/search?q=%s |
| Kubernetes Docs | :k8s | https://kubernetes.io/search/?q=%s |
| Apple Developer Docs | :aapl | https://developer.apple.com/search/?q=%s&type=Documentation |
| Postgresql Docs | :postgres | https://www.postgresql.org/search/?u=%2Fdocs%2F16%2F&q=%s |
| OpenSUSE packages | :suse | https://packagehub.suse.com/search/?q=%s |
| Debian packages | :deb | https://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=%s&searchon=names&suite=bookworm§ion=all |
| Arch Wiki | :arch | https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php?search=%s&title=Special%3ASearch&profile=default&fulltext=1 |
| Go Packages | :go | https://pkg.go.dev/search?q=%s&ref=opensearch |
| Google OSS Code Search | :goss | https://cs.opensource.google/search?q=%s |
| Ruby Gems | :rubygems | https://rubygems.org/search?query=%s |
| AWS docs | :aws | https://docs.aws.amazon.com/search/doc-search.html?searchPath=documentation&searchQuery=%s |
| Maven Central | :mvn | https://central.sonatype.com/search?q=%s |
| FRED | :fred | https://fred.stlouisfed.org/searchresults?st=%s |