[Tutorial] How to change the default search engine in Opera desktop

If you use Opera then you know that the default search engine that is used in the address bar is Google. To use another search engine, such as Bing, then you would type "b", and then your search term. So if I wanted to Bing my site I would type "b Techman's World". What some people do not know is that you can change the default search engine for the address bar. You will no longer have to rely on the search box, which will always have Google set back eventually from my own experiences.

The version of Opera used in this tutorial is 12.11. This is the latest version of Opera which adds more support for the newest web technologies out there. Aside from what the update can do, this is the version of the the software I used.


Steps
The first thing you need to do is open Opera. Click the Opera button, hover over "settings", and choose preferences. You can also use the keyboard shortcut CTRL + F12. When the settings window opens, select the search tab. From this tab you can choose a search engine to make your default. I choose Bing, since I've mentioned it before in the first paragraph.

In the window choose something and click the edit button. When you do that you get a basic settings area that allows you to change the search engine name and the keyword for it.

You'll want to go ahead and switch to the advance view, as this is where all the "good stuff" is located.

Here is where the real settings are located. In the advanced view, you can still change the search engine name and the keyword for it, but you can now also set the URL for the search function, and the query string. You can also choose to use the POST form method.

However, what we were looking for was the "Use as default search engine" button. Check that box and then click OK. When taken back to the Preference window, click OK as well to save the settings. Now should be able to open a new tab, and type something in the URL bar that's actually a search term and taken to your favorite search engine instead of Google.

I'm not entirely sure about this, but I do believe that Opera is paid by Google to have them as the default search engine. Hope you found this helpful, and share it with your friends or someone you know who uses the Opera web browser.