Use Safari Quick Website Search for Faster Site-Specific Results

[MacRumors]

There are several ways to search the web in Apple's Safari browser. In this article, we're going to highlight a way of searching specific websites using a lesser-known Safari feature called Quick Website Search.

The option is designed to work with sites that have a built-in search field, like the one you can find at the top of the main page at MacRumors.com. Here's how it works.

Let's say you want to look up articles on MacRumors that mention device benchmarks. You might do this by typing "macrumors benchmarks" into Safari's address bar to get results from whichever search engine the browser is configured to use.

If you're a bit more search savvy, you might even type "site:macrumors.com benchmarks" to limit the search to MacRumors. But ideally you'd just navigate to MacRumors.com and use the search field provided at the top of the page. If you take the latter option and Quick Website Search is enabled, Safari will remember that you've used the MacRumors search field and offer to use it again in future searches that include the website's name.

For example, if you typed "macrumors" followed by "deals" directly into Safari's address bar, you could tap the option Search macrumors.com for "deals" in the suggestions box, as shown above, and you'd get instant results from MacRumors' own on-site search function.

How to Enable Quick Website Search in iOS

The functionality of Quick Website Search depends on how a given site implements its search field, but we've found that it works with most popular websites that offer them, so it's worth making sure you have the feature enabled. To do this on iPhone and iPad, launch the Settings app, tap through to Apps ➝ Safari ➝ Quick Website Search and slide the Quick Website Search toggle to the green ON position.

Notice on this screen that you can also tap Edit to remove websites from the list of shortcuts that Safari automatically adds to whenever you use a site-specific search field.

How to Enable Quick Website Search on Mac

The feature works the same way in Safari for macOS. To see if it's enabled in the browser, select Safari ➝ Settings... from the menu bar, choose the Search tab, and make sure the checkbox is ticked next to Enable Quick Website Search.

Lastly, if you click the Manage Websites... button next to the checkbox, you can view Safari's list of website shortcuts, remove individual websites, or clear the list completely.

Article Link: Use Safari Quick Website Search for Faster Site-Specific Results

 

[WarmWinterHat]

I've noticed this on Mac, but haven't been able to get the hang of it. Do I always have to type the full name of whatever site I'm wanting to search, or is there a shortcut can be added? Example: W whateverimsearching instead of wikipedia whateverimsearching.

Didn't know it was on mobile, but I don't use the web much on my phone.

 

[dannyyankou]

This never works for me for some reason. And I have it enabled.

 

[phenste]

whose idea was it to start posting lesser-known Apple OS tips? great stuff, thank you from a 15-year Mac user!

 

[rizzo41999]

I've been using Brave. It's been pretty good.

 

[thefrost]

Didn't know about this. Interesting to see.

 

[Cappy]

Incomplete, buggy and might not be compatible with certain extensions...

1. The quick website search does not seem to sync. I have addresses on my work Safari that are not on my phone. Same Apple account.
2. On my phone it was on but did not contain any addresses even after I tried MacRumors.com as a demo. I turned it off and back on and then it put macrumors.com into it once I tried it again.
3. I use Kagi with its extension. The quick web search does not want to work so I suspect that Kagi's extension might be getting in the way. I can't test now but will try later.

 

[DunedinD]

I find it easier to simply type site: prefix in front of a domain (with optional subdomain) along with other search terms. I see that Apple probably had research findings that said people would simply provide a site name, not domain, as one of the terms they supply to Google and other search engines, though.

 

[svish]

Have turned it on. Really useful. Works well on my iPhone, but for some reason doesn't seem to work on my Mac

 

[MichaelYYZ]

This is a bit confusing to me and I don't quite understand: what is the difference between having the Quick Website Search turned On other Off? I checked all my devices and the feature was already turned On on all.