Google is currently the most popular search engine on the Internet. Safari users in OS X have direct access to Google searches from the top of a browser window. But what about other browsers and OS 9 users?

Netscape Communicator

For Netscape 4.0 - 4.7, it is possible to search by entering ' ? <search terms> ' in the URL box instead of a URL. You can set the search engine used in this case by directly editing the prefs file. This can be dangerous! See the Unofficial Netscape FAQ for more details. http://www.ufaq.org/commonly/userprefs.html

Before starting, quit any copies of Netscape that may be running.
To edit the prefs file, use SimpleText or equivalent to load the file System Folder:Preferences:Netscape f:Netscape Preferences . Once you've loaded the preferences file, add the following line to the end of the file:

user_pref("network.search.url", "http://www.google.com/keyword/") ;

Don't forget to hit < enter > at the end of the line!

Mozilla / Netscape 6

See the instructions here:
http://www.google.com/mozilla/google-search.html

Internet Explorer

For Internet Explorer v 5 and v5.1, you need a more dedicated hack. This is explained at
http://www.visakopu.net/ie5google/

Alternatively you can use a Bookmark that contains a piece of javascript (put this on your Toolbar for quick access). Go to http://www.bookmarklets.com/tools/search/srchbook.phtml and follow the instructions.

Macintosh OS X Service

For OS X users there's also a way to select text in any application and press Shift-Cmd-G to launch a Google search for that text. You need to register Google as a service available to all applications under the application menu. Install the Google Service from here: http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/internet_utilities/searchgoogleservice.html

MACinations August 03