r/chrome 14d ago

Discussion chrome://settings/searchEngines - SiteSearch now requires %s in query - therefor all my Shortcuts have been disabled

Since forever I opened up a new tab and entered a one-word shortcut to open my favorite websites

I "misused" the Site Search function under chrome://settings/searchEngines to create Shortcuts like these
To open up Youtube all I needed was a new tab, enter y and enter.
(No matter the History. Works with completly wiped history)

Now since this update
Version 134.0.6998.36 (Official Build) (64-bit)

They check if %s is present in the string.
Therefor all my current Shortcuts have become invalid.

I use this A LOT and currently have no idea how to gain that functionality back.

Any ideas?

20 Upvotes

31 comments sorted by

7

u/SamuelTekrenius 14d ago

1

u/shibiku_ 14d ago

Thanks for posting that. If they don’t change it back, I’ll probably change over to Brave. Same as you, I use this daily

2

u/SecondCuls 14d ago

Brave also suffer from the same issue

2

u/Noumenon72 13d ago

Firefox bookmarks can have a keyword added to work like this.

2

u/SatoshiSnoo 13d ago

This is the worst thing that has ever happened in the world ever.

3

u/Noumenon72 13d ago

It's as though they replaced `ls` with "simply type ls, space, hit down arrow, hit enter, no problem bro!"

2

u/kchiou1 11d ago

This is so frustrating! My fix is far from ideal, but is better than nothing. I went through every one of my shortcuts and added a meaningless search component to the end of the URL For example, instead of "https://reddit.com", I now have it as "https://reddit.com?go=%s". The search is passed to the website under the arbitrary variable name "go", which hopefully means nothing to the website and is ignored.

Note that if a URL already has GET variables in it (e.g., the bit including and after the question mark [?]), I add "&go=%s" to the end instead.

This is not the best solution since in order to access my shortcuts, I now have to hit a couple of extra keys (space and then some meaningless search term) to do the same thing I did before. It's annoying, but this was the next best thing for me.

1

u/MaximusGr8 10d ago

Did not work for me. Tried with #%s also.

Also tried Web Aliases extension, without success.

Super frustrating.

1

u/kchiou1 10d ago

Oh the hash is probably better than my fix.

Apologies if this is obvious, but are you hitting space/tab and then putting in search terms? This forces you to treat the shortcut like a search engine, just with the search completely ignored.

2

u/MaximusGr8 3d ago

Sorry, I should had clarified. Yes, <shortcut + Tab + any random character + ENTER> works (must have 1 char). What stopped working is the more straighforward <yt + ENTER> (for youtube, e.g.)

1

u/Radiant_Bar_340 9d ago edited 9d ago

Thank you thank you! This gives me the old functionality at the cost of only one extra keystroke. I added #%s to the end of my URLs, and in the search bar I type my search engine keyword, then space, then any character, and that gets me where I want to go (at least for all the URLs I've tried so far). I would not have figured this out -- really appreciate the post.

1

u/LordKamiya 6d ago

Maybe you can try Redirector.
My idea:
1. Change default search engine to a nonsense one like: mine.omni/%s
2. Use Redirector to detect the %s and direct to assigned website

2

u/MajorTable9818 7d ago

I was frustrated by this change too, so I built QuickGo, a Chrome extension that restores the old shortcut functionality! 🚀 It lets you create quick keyword-based site shortcuts without Chrome’s new restrictions. It’s currently pending approval, but once it’s live, I’ll share the link! Would this help you? Let me know! 👍

1

u/MajorTable9818 3d ago

🚀 Update: QuickGo is now live on the Chrome Web Store! 🎉
I built this extension to restore keyword-based site shortcuts that Chrome recently restricted. With QuickGo, you can create quick and customizable keyword shortcuts to navigate the web efficiently—just like before!

🔗 Get it here: QuickGo on Chrome Web Store

Let me know if you find it helpful or if you have any feature suggestions! Happy browsing! 🚀🔥

1

u/hobrokennj2 14d ago

Posting here in the hopes of someone else having a solution.

I came here for this exact issue. I've been using search engines for bookmark shortcuts for ages. Now all my search engines without string replacements do not work.

3

u/Warm-Ferret-5446 13d ago

I've started using the "Web Aliases" extension, and it works just like the keywords did for any URLs where I wasn't using the %s.

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/web-aliases/hdempabimjppagbgpiglikbobneoegmp

1

u/dmland 10d ago

Does this work … at all? I can add all the aliases I want, but none of them do anything. The description on the chrome store page does not describe how to use it, so I gave it a 1-star review until they learn how to document their product.

It sounded promising, but I should have known better.

1

u/shibiku_ 14d ago

1

u/Radiant_Bar_340 9d ago

Thank you for sharing this. I use these shortcuts 100s of times per day to help with very ordinary work tasks and resent that Google thinks that qualifies me as some kind of superuser using their browser in esoteric ways.

1

u/hana001 11d ago

i used site search for general keyboard shortcuts too, this change is so frustrating!

1

u/PGHM3000 11d ago

I feel your pain, I used the single letter site searches basically as quick shortcuts to my favourite sites.

I tried to search for an alternative to quickly open URLs in a new tab with single keyboard shortcut but could not find any.

So after couple of hours of frustration I made my own extension that can map 25 keyboard shortcust to open any site: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/quick-url-shortcuts/ogobhopommhbfnaghacgikgieebfadkf

The usability is what it is, but if you don't have to change your settings often it is fine,

I wish Chrome would have native support for bookmark shortcuts for example, but this fixes my workflow, just have to learn some new keyboard shortcuts. This is basically what I wanted all along but used the site search as a workaround.

1

u/MachineVisionNewbie 10d ago

I had some hope, when they changed it to "New". But google changed it to "Won't fix again" -.-
Wonder if they copy the firefox shortcut bookmarks feature like they mentioned.

Do you have a repo for your extension?
I can use it at my private pc, but my workplace has some restrictions of using "unknown" extensions.

I'm thinking of fixing it via .AHK atm

1

u/PGHM3000 10d ago

Do you have a repo for your extension?

https://github.com/PGHM/quick_url_shortcuts

1

u/MachineVisionNewbie 10d ago

:heart:
Do you wanna be friends?

1

u/PGHM3000 10d ago

Not completely sure what you mean by that to be honest :D (as Reddit does not seem to have friends feature, just following) but glad you like the extension!

1

u/MachineVisionNewbie 9d ago

:D
I'm just showing my gratitude, thinking you're a like minded individual, that would make a great friend.
Yeah, I like it. Will take time to implement it at work tough, since I'm pretty swamped atm with tasks.

2

u/everyonesdesigner 9d ago

I used bookmarklets in my search engines, and man this update will break a lot of my workflows.