If you are a Chrome user and regularly use awesome Google services like Gmail, Calendar, Contacts, Drive, Bookmarks, Google Plus, Photos, YouTube, Maps, Play, News, Finance etc., then this tip is for you.
Few days back I wrote an article on how to search Google Drive files easily from Chrome (and Firefox). As pointed out by one of my readers, this technique can be easily extended to almost any search service that queries things via the URL. Another reader pointed out the easy way to add search engines to Chrome which is as below.
- Go to the site for which you want to add a search engine
- Locate the search box for that site and right click on it
- Chrome shows a context menu called Add as search engine…

- Select and it will show a pop-up with all the details filled in as below
- Just click OK and your search engine is ready for use

For some reason though, this does not work with Google Drive search box. Google Drive search box does not allow right click and that is why we have to add search engine for Google Drive separately.
Although the above technique should work perfectly for some sites, sadly for Gmail or Google Contacts it does not work. The default URL populated is outdated and does not fetch results anymore. Below, I have listed correct URLs for the most useful Google services. I have added more to this useful collection from Brian Johnson.
Happy Searching!
Name | Keyword | URL |
---|---|---|
Gmail | https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#search/%s | |
Google Calendar | cal | https://www.google.com/calendar/render?q=%s |
Google Contacts | contacts | https://www.google.com/contacts/#contacts/search/%s |
Google Drive | drive | https://drive.google.com/?#search/%s |
Google Bookmarks | links | https://www.google.com/bookmarks/find?q=%s |
Google Plus | plus | https://plus.google.com/u/0/s/%s |
Google+ Photos | photo | https://plus.google.com/photos/search/%s |
Youtube | video | http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%s |
Google Maps | maps | https://maps.google.com/maps?q=%s |
Google Play | play | https://play.google.com/store/search?q=%s |
Google News | news | https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&gl=in&tbm=nws&authuser=0&q=%s |
Google Finance | finance | https://www.google.com/finance?q=%s |
OH, never mind, I see it's on your list already!