How to Search for and Send Links in Gmail

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by Heinz Tschabitscher
An independent writer who has reviewed hundreds of email programs and services since 1997.
Updated March 21, 2019

You open a new browser tab, employ Google to find the right page on your site, follow the link, focus the address bar, copy the URL, go back to the Gmail tab, hit r and paste the link to answer the question.

Or you have Google Search enabled in Gmail, don't open a new tab, don't copy, don't switch and don't paste—and still get that link in your reply.

Search for Links and Send Them Right in Gmail

Note that Google Search is currently not available in Gmail. You can search using the search field, of course, and insert links from the results by copying and pasting.

To search the web and send links with snippets easily in Gmail:

  1. Make sure Google Search is enabled (see below).

  2. Click on the Web Search entry field.

    You can also hit g followed immediately by /

  3. Type the desired search term.

  4. Hit Enter.

  5. Hover with the mouse over the desired search result.

  6. Click the down arrow that appears.

  7. Select Send by email to create a new message with the search result inserted.

    Gmail will create a rich-text message automatically. You can click « Plain Text to switch to, well, plain text without losing anything but formatting.

  8. That's it!

Enable Google Search in Gmail

To turn on an inline web search in Gmail:

  1. Choose Settings from Gmail's top navigation bar.

  2. Go to the Labs tab.

  3. Make sure Enable is selected for Google Search.

  4. Click Save Changes.

While Composing a Message

  1. Select Paste result to enter, at the current cursor position, the full search result including title and text snippet.

  2. Select Paste URL to insert only a link to the search result.

  3. Neither choice will change your message's type (rich or plain text).

While Viewing a Conversation

  1. Select Reply with the result to create a new email reply that has the search result pre-filled in the message body.

  2. Again, this will result in a message that's rich text; click « Plain Text to change it to unformatted text.

While Chatting

  1. Select Send by chat to... to create an instant message with the search result.