[Run][New Plugin] Web search

[mrlacey]

Summary of the new feature/enhancement

I want to be able to start a web search from the launcher.
Ideally, I'd type bing power toys and it would navigate to https://www.bing.com/search?q=power+toys in my default browser.
google power toys would go to the equivalent.

The ability to specify the keyword/search engine to use and the domain it goes to would also be necessary. Not only would this enable supporting other search engines, but it would also allow for people to adjust for different TLD versions of search engines.

This would be similar to functionality that used to be available in Enso launcher.

Proposed technical implementation details (optional)

This would presumably require some settings for determining which words are identified as initiating the search and the URL to submit the query to.
This could also be the base for similar functionality where a keyword could launch an app and pass other values as command-line arguments. Without additional arguments, this could also serve as a way to create aliases for apps so they could be launched with a small number of keystrokes.

crutkas: possible solution to this issue in #10619. It defers to default browser + user's search engine. Lets PT Run be generic

[ArttuLai]

Yes! Also it would be great if I could just write a longer sentence/string and it would always default to web search when it doesn't find other results. So basically, it should be like Windows Search 😅

[CatSlave007]

This function is very practical. Hope to realize it

[YongWookHa]

Yes, just like Alfred on Mac does!

[rglastra]

So basically, it should be like Windows Search

And it would be fantastic if it would leverage the system default browser's chosen search engine, instead of picking one for itself.

[ChristophRichner]

How about using a ? char to to switch to a web search mode like > goes to a shell?

[zakius]

that could be a shortcut to default search engine, but multiple ones should be supported with own keywords

[kraoli]

Please give the option to disable this. Not everyone wants to automatically expose every local search query to a search engine on the internet.

This is, by the way, a big privacy insult in the windows start menu search, because you can't disable web search anymore.

[Absoblogginlutely]

See also #3420 that someone posted. I have a ton of web shortcuts in the browser and it would be nice to be able to run them natively in the launcher, optionally with the ? or # or other user defined character beforehand so powertoys understands I'm gong to be running a search engine.
One thing to consider would be how it knows which browser to use - to further muddy the waters would modifiers launch a particular browse so '# c powertoys' launches chrome (the 3) and then runs the c shortcut to search chocolatey's website for powertoys. Using '? int passwords" would then launch edge to search the intranet for passwords (as an example)