This tip was printed from the MalekTips Computer and Technology Help and Tips website at http://malektips.com.

Windows XP and DOS - Search Google and Other Search Engines from the Command Prompt

SUMMARY: Create a Windows XP/DOS command line utility that lets a batch file search Google by starting a web browser or displaying the results in a DOS prompt.

Here's an interesting command you can add to your Windows XP and DOS arsenal.

Just take the following text, open Notepad, and create a file google.bat in your main Windows directory (usually c:\windows):

@echo off
if not "%1"=="" (set QUERY=%1) else (goto error)
:loop
shift
if not "%1"=="" (set QUERY=%QUERY%+%1) else (goto exitloop)
goto loop
:exitloop
start http://www.google.com/search?q=%QUERY%
exit
:error
echo You did not enter a search query!

This creates a google command that starts your default web browser and uses the Google search engine to process your search query.

Examples:

google night photography help

google 2006 college basketball statistics

To search MSN's Live.com instead, replace the "start" command with:

start http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=%QUERY%

To search Yahoo!:

start http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=%QUERY%

To search Ask:

start http://www.ask.com/web?q=%QUERY%

Though interesting, these batch files are not perfect, as certain special characters may trip up the search.

And now, for something completely different...

Why start a web browser session when you can display the results directly in the DOS prompt? Fdisk.com has a Win32/DOS port of the text-based Lynx browser.

	Lynx, and this particular port of Lynx, is a third-party utility not written or supported by MalekTips. Standard disclaimers apply.

If you download and extract the archive to c:\lynx you can replace the line of the above batch file prefixed by "start" with the following lines. This displays the top search results directly in the DOS prompt (the results may be messy, but they should be readable):

call c:\lynx\samples\lynx -nolist -dump "http://www.google.com/search?q=%QUERY%" > tmp.htm
more tmp.htm
del tmp.htm

(Note that the first two lines should actually be one line of code in the batch file.)

You may instead want to download the following batch file we have created. This batch file is an enhancement to the one written in this tip. It starts the Lynx web browser if it exists on your hard drive, and if not, your default web browser starts:

* Google search via the Windows XP / DOS command prompt

	Be sure to test the batch file before running, and you may need to modify the batch file and/or Lynx's configuration batch file at c:\lynx\samples\lynx.bat. Again, standard disclaimers apply!