You don't need to be a nerd to REV up the default Search engine

Given how much time all of us spend using the Search feature, why not make that time as enjoyable and productive as possible? Late last week, DrenBoy Opus from the Elven lands and owner/creator of Opus Labs, gave NPIRLers some hot tips on how to put our personal stamp on Search. While I am sadly challenged on practically every technical front, even I was able to use these easy-to-follow instructions to remarkable advantage. This is brilliant stuff!

By DrenBoy Opus

Second Life's newfangled Windlight First Look release comes to town, along with a non-Windlight Search Release Candidate viewer version... Both have the new web-based search feature. After playing with it, I discovered how to change the default search engine to Google as well as a host of other things:

Here are the steps to change to Google
1. Ensure you have the 'client and server' menu up (press CTRL + ALT + D or press CTRL + ALT + SHIFT + D)
2. Click on Client --> Debug Settings
3. Drop Down to the 'SearchQueryURL'. You will see the default text is

http://secondlife.com/app/search/search_proxy.php?
q=[QUERY]&s=[COLLECTION]&m=[MATURE]
&t=[TEEN]&region=[REGION]&x=[X]
&y=[Y]&z=[Z]

Change that text into (I have prepared other options including LSL search for those who dont want Google ;D)

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=[QUERY]
&s=[COLLECTION]&m=[MATURE]&t=[TEEN]
&region=[REGION]&x=[X]&y=[Y]&z=[Z]

4. Close that window, give the search a whirl and (if you dont crash due to a typo / mis-paste), you will be basking in your new-newfangled search!

Google Search
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=[QUERY]
&s=[COLLECTION]&m=[MATURE]&t=[TEEN]
&region=[REGION]&x=[X]&y=[Y]&z=[Z]

SLBrowser (created by Felix Wakmann and Diva Canto)
http://webi.slbrowser.com:8080/webadapter/results.jsp?
query=[QUERY]&s=[COLLECTION][MATURE]
[TEEN][REGION][X][Y][Z]

NPIRL Blog Search (Yes, LOL!)
http://npirl.blogspot.com/search?q=[QUERY]
&s=[COLLECTION]&m=[MATURE]&t=[TEEN]
&region=[REGION][X][Y][Z]

SLURL (A virtual GPS; not useful but fun)
http://slurl.com/secondlife/[REGION]/[X]/[Y]/[Z]/[QUERY]
[COLLECTION][MATURE][TEEN]

LSL Wiki
http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Special:Search?search=[QUERY]
&s=[COLLECTION]&m=[MATURE]&t=[TEEN]
&region=[REGION][X][Y][Z]

SL Exchange
http://www.slexchange.com/modules.php?
name=Marketplace&SearchKeyword=[QUERY]
&s=[COLLECTION][MATURE][TEEN][REGION][X][Y][Z]

YouTube Search (some movie controls are kinda wonky)
http://youtube.com/results?search_query=[QUERY]
&s=[COLLECTION]&m=[MATURE]&t=[TEEN]
&region=[REGION][X][Y][Z]

Microsoft's Live Search
http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=[QUERY]
&s=[COLLECTION]&m=[MATURE]&t=[TEEN]
&region=[REGION]&x=[X]&y=[Y]&z=[Z]

Yahoo Search
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=[QUERY]
&s=[COLLECTION]&m=[MATURE]&t=[TEEN]
&region=[REGION]&x=[X]&y=[Y]&z=[Z]

Wikipedia Search
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=[QUERY]
&s=[COLLECTION]&m=[MATURE]&t=[TEEN]
&region=[REGION]&x=[X]&y=[Y]&z=[Z]

Ask.com Search
http://www.ask.com/web?q=[QUERY]&s=[COLLECTION]
&m=[MATURE]&t=[TEEN]&region=[REGION]
&x=[X]&y=[Y]&z=[Z]

All these locations tested by DrenBoy Opus on 15th Nov 07

November 25th: Just received this update from Felix Wakmann:

Linden Labs included a new search feature in the Windlight release candidate client of Second Life. At first it looked like another closed system, but then DrenBoy Opus discovered that the search page is configurable via an obscure setting. Since Diva Canto and I have been running our SLBrowser search engine for the last 6 months, we've been looking for better ways to hook into SL. So we created Open Search for Second Life to augment the Linden Search with some alternatives. The Open Search page gives you quick access to multiple search pages, including SLBrowser, Linden Labs, OnRez, SLExchange, and Google. The line-up is subject to change, but this is our current offering. You get all the functionality of Linden Labs new search, plus these other great search engines. We believe that search should be open, and that the best way to improve things is for competition... where the users choose the best solution, rather than being forced to go with once choice. If you have the new Release Candidate (see the link above) you can easily configure it for Open Search. Thanks to DrenBoy Opus for letting us know about this possibility. -- Felix Wakmann and Diva Canto