How-to guide
How to search with a different search engine
In Chrome, type a search engine’s name in the address bar and press Tab. With TabCmdr, press ⌘K on any page, type your search and pick Google, Bing or DuckDuckGo.
Quick answer
Search with any engine in three steps
- ⌘K
Step 1
Open the palette
Ctrl+K on Windows and Linux. Works on any page.
- :s pull requests
Step 2
Type your search
Start with :s to list only the search engines.
- ↓↵
Step 3
Pick an engine
The results open in a new tab.
Chrome's way
Chrome’s built-in way to search with another engine
- Jump to the address bar with Ctrl+L, Alt+D or F6 on Windows and Linux, or ⌘+L on a Mac.
- Type a search term and press Enter to search with your default search engine.
- To use a different engine, type the search engine’s name and press Tab, then type your search.
Source: Google’s keyboard shortcuts help page, checked in October 2026.
TabCmdr's way
Search from any page with TabCmdr
TabCmdr is a keyboard launcher that lives in your browser. When you type a search into it, it also offers to search the web for it, with a row for each search engine you’ve turned on.
Before you start: add TabCmdr from the Chrome Web Store. It has a 7-day free trial and needs no account.
Step 1: Open the palette
Press ⌘+K on a Mac or Ctrl+K on Windows and Linux, on any page.
Step 2: Type your search
The search engine rows come after everything else that matches, such as your open tabs, history and commands. Here, pull requests matches an open tab and a page from history first.
To skip everything else, start with :s. The list then shows only the search engines.
:s leaves only the search engine rows.Step 3: Pick an engine and press Enter
Press ↓ or ↑ to highlight the engine you want, then press Enter. The results open in a new tab.
Open a web address directly
Type an address such as developer.mozilla.org and the top row becomes Open developer.mozilla.org. Press Enter to open it in a new tab, or pick a search engine row to search for the address instead.
Add Yahoo or Brave Search
- Open the palette, type
settingsand press Enter on TabCmdr Settings. - Choose Search & Results in the sidebar.
- Under Search Engines, tick the engines you want. Google, Bing and DuckDuckGo are on by default, and Yahoo and Brave Search are off.
Untick an engine to remove its row.
Try it on your own tabs
Works in Chrome, Edge, Brave, Arc, Vivaldi and Opera.
Install for Chrome