How to Manage Search Engines in the Opera Web Browser

Opera is a popular, free web browser that's available for Windows, macOS, and Linux computers as well as mobile devices. Like many web browsers, Opera supports web searches from the address bar. So, any search term you type into the address bar feeds into the search engine of your choice.

Opera relies on Google by default. Still, it's easy to select another search provider or add a new one. Opera's unique keyword system lets you use a custom search engine for a query without changing the default search engine.

How to Change Opera's Default Search Engine

If you'd rather default to another of Opera's available search engines, it's easy to make the switch.

1. Open the Opera web browser.

2. Select Opera > Preferences on a Mac, or Opera > Options on a Windows PC.

   For quicker access, use the Settings shortcut. Enter opera://settings in the search bar.

3. Under Search engine, select the drop-down menu and choose Google Search, Yahoo!, DuckDuckGo, Amazon, Bing, or Wikipedia.

4. You've set your new default search engine in Opera. Now, when you enter a search term in the address bar, Opera defaults to using this search engine. (In this example, it's DuckDuckGo.)

Use Custom Search Engines in Opera With Keywords

A keyword is a letter or short word that serves as a search engine's nickname. If you'd like to use another search engine for a specific search, here's how to access it with its keyword.

1. Open the Opera web browser and Select Opera > Preferences on a Mac, or Opera > Options on a Windows PC.

2. Select Manage search engines.

3. Note the keywords for the installed search engines, including any you added.

4. Exit settings and open an Opera tab.

5. In this example, we'll do a search on Amazon using its z keyword. Type z shoes in the search bar and press Enter or Return.

6. Your custom search goes directly to shoe listings in Amazon.

How to Add a New Search Engine to Opera in Settings

If you want to use a search engine that Opera doesn't offer, it's easy to add it to your options. In this example, we'll add the Spanish-language version of Wikipedia.

After you add a new search engine, use its keyword for custom searches.

1. Open the Opera web browser.

2. Select Opera > Preferences on a Mac, or Opera > Options on a Windows PC.

   For quicker access, try the Settings shortcut. Enter opera://settings in the search bar.

3. Select Manage search engines.

4. Select Add.

5. Enter a name for the search engine, a keyword, and the URL, and then select Add.

   When you enter the URL, enter only the static part of the address. At the end, add a /%s to represent the search query. In this example, we entered the URL as es.wikipedia.org/wiki/%s.

6. You've added the new search engine to Opera's list, and you can now use it in custom search queries.

How to Use the New Search Engine

To use the newly added search engine via its keyword:

1. Open the Opera web browser.

2. In the address bar, enter your search engine's keyword, followed by a search term. In this example, we use the keyword s to open a query in the Spanish version of Wikipedia. Type s Mexico.

3. Your search term opens in the designated search engine. In this example, it's the Spanish-language version of Wikipedia.