Add instant search to Safari using Inquisitor

December 20, 2008 by Sukrit Dhandhania

Apple’s Safari web browser, like Firefox, comes built-in with a web search box. As useful as that is, it leaves a little to be desired. That’s where Inquisitor comes in. Inquisitor is a free Safari plug-in that enhances this web search box. It adds features such as history, auto-completion, and the coolest of all its features, it displays search results right below the search box.

Let’s get started by installing Inquisitor. First head to the project’s website. Although the software is freely available for download, the developer of the project requests you to leave a donation using Paypal. Download the latest version of the software. It should automatically launch the installation screen. Follow the steps to complete the installation. At the end of the installation you will need to restart Safari.

After you are done restarting Safari you can begin using Inquisitor. Head over to the web search box in Safari and type something. Do no hit Enter just yet. In the example below I typed in “inquisitor”. A neat little drop down should pop up with a bunch of results for that query. The first three results are results of site suggestions, while the second set of results are search suggestions.

Though Inquisitor works well with Google search for most part, in recent versions you need to select the Yahoo! search engine to get many of the features to work correctly. To change the settings for Inquisitor click on the Safari menu button at the top left of your screen and then select the Preferences option.

When the preferences menu launches click on the “Search” tab, as show in the image below.

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Here you can click on the drop down menu next to the heading “Search Engine”. Pick whatever works best for you. You can also pick form other options. Click on the “Edit Sites” option. Now click on the “+”, find the search engine you are looking for, and add it.

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