Most of you are complaining of having trouble in adding custom search explorer in IE 8. Some of you want Google as search provider in IE 8, while others may prefer Yahoo or Ask.com.
By default IE 8 uses Live Search as the search engine for Instant search box on the upper right corner. However if you are not too comfortable working with Live Search, you can always add a search engine or even create new search provider.
Here is a short video tutorial and guide on how to add custom search provider internet explorer 8.
To add your preferred search engine:
Step 1
Click on down arrow on Instant Search Box and Click on “Find More Providers”.
You can also reach this step by Clicking Tools> Add-ons> Search Providers > Find More Search Providers (at the bottom left corner)
You can also reach this step by clicking here.
Step 2
From the list of search providers, select your preferred search engine and click on “Add to Internet Explorer” button to add it to IE 8.
Step 3
Click on down arrow on Instant Search Box and select “Manage Search Providers”. Now Right Click on your preferred search engine and click “Set as default”.
Video Tutorial
To create your own Search Engine for IE 8
If you are not satisfied by the list of search engines, IE allows you to create your own search provider. Here is the procedure.
Step 1
Go to the list of search providers as in Step 1 above, scroll down to the bottom of page and Click on ” “Create your own search Provider” .
You can also reach this step by clicking here.
Step 2.
In the short form, fill the required URL of search provider. For example if you want AltaVista as your search engine, go to altavista.com and perform a search for “TEST”. Then copy the URL and paste it in the form.
Step 3
Name your Search Engine and Click on “Install Search Provider”
If you want to use any particular site like EzineArtlices.com, you can do that too. Just go to your preferred search engine ( Google/ Yahoo etc) and search for the term “TEST site:ezinearticles.com” and copy the URL .
Paste the URL in the form and name your search engine. This search engine will only perform search for articles on ezinearticles.com