When you install Internet Explorer 8 for the first time, it generally has only one search provider or search engine listed in its command bar, and that is Microsoft’s own “Live Search” that now redirects to Microsoft’s Bing search engine. This is the default search engine. However, you can add more search engines to Internet Explorer’s command bar so that when you search an expression from its search box, you can use another search engine of your choice. Similarly, if you’ve added more search engines to IE, you can select which search engine would be your default search engine.
Add more search engines to Internet Explorer 8 (and optionally also making it the default search engine):
(1) Click on the down arrow near the search box in the command bar in IE (top-right corner), and then from the popup menu, select the “Find More Providers” option (see figure below):
(2) You’re taken to the Add-on Gallery of IE8 (shown in figure below). Select the search engine of your choice.
You can also view other page(s) of this Gallery to find more search engines. For example, Google Search is not shown on the first page of this Gallery; it is shown on the second page (see figure below):
Once you select the search engine of your choice, click on the “Add to Internet Explorer” button for that search engine (see above figure). I’ve selected Google Search for the purposes of this article.
(3) An “Add Search Provider” dialog box will appear on the screen, displaying the search engine selected by you. Click on the Add button. If you also want to make this search engine the default search engine for Internet Explorer, select the “Make this my default search provider” check box, before you click on the Add button.
(4) This search engine now gets added to the list of search engines in the search box drop-down list in the command bar of IE (see figure below, which now also shows Google):
Making an already existing search engine the default search engine in IE:
If the search engine of your choice is already listed in the IE list of search providers, you can easily make it your default search engine in place of the current default search engine. For this purpose:
(1) Click on the down arrow near the search box in the command bar in IE (top-right corner), and then from the popup menu, select the “Manage Search Providers” option (see previous figure):
(2) A “Manage Add-ons” dialog box will appear on the screen. Select “Search Providers” from the list of “Add-on Types” in the left sidebar, if it is not selected already. In the right pane, all the existing search providers in IE will be listed. Select the search provider of your choice and then click on “Set as default” button. Before you do so, if you want, you may also select the check box that says “Prevent programs from suggesting changes to my default search provider”; this will ensure that the search engine selected by you will continue to be the default search engine for IE.
That’s it!
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