If you’re using Internet Explorer 9, there’s a good chance that you’re using Google as your search provider. If not, it’s time to change that. There are a few things you can do to add Google as your search provider in IE9:

  1. Open the IE9 Options dialog and select the “Search providers” tab. Under “Search providers,” select Google from the list.
  2. Click on the “Add” button and enter a name for your new search provider. For example, if you want to use Google Earth as your search provider, enter “geo.”
  3. Click on the “Apply” button and enjoy your new search provider!

The other day we looked at the IE 9 Public Beta and showed that it allows you to search directly from the address bar like in Google Chrome. This is a cool feature, but by default, of course the search engine is Bing. You can easily change it to Google or any other provider that they offer easily and here is how to do it.

Change Search Provider to Google

Start typing in a search term in the IE 9 address bar and if you have suggested Sites enabled you’ll see the Bing icon at the bottom. Click the Add button to add other search providers.

You’re brought to the Internet Explorer Addons page where you can select from a number of different Search Suggestions.

Select to to add Google Search Suggestions.

A window comes up and you can make it your default search provider. Also you can check to use search suggestions from Google…click Add.

Now when you type in a search term you will see Google Suggestions. It only shows 5 by default.

But if you click the down menu it will show ten.

And there you go! Google is your default search provider in IE 9 Beta.

If you’re not a fan of the Search Suggestions showing up IE 9 makes it easy to disable the feature while you enter your search term…which is a nice convenience from IE 8.

For more on IE 9 Check Out Our Screen Shot Tour