How to Make Google Your Default Search Engine

Applies to: Communicator 4.0x
Operating Systems: Windows 3.x, Windows 95, and Windows NT.
Reference: Google.com, "Security Preferences for Communicator" by Alec B. Plumb, "Advanced Communicator References" by Jay Garcia and Kevin Hecht
Translations: To be done in Spanish, French, Italian, and Chinese.

Example on How to Make Google Your Default Search Engine

For Windows, Macintosh, and Unix
 

With Google's quality search results, you might want to consider making Google your default search engine for your Netscape Communicator.

Before starting, quit any copies of Netscape that may be running, and make a backup copy of the prefs.js.  Note that parameters in this file are case sensitive, and it does matter whether you type an uppercase vs. a lowercase letter. Spelling and syntax errors may cause the contents of the file to be deleted when you restart Netscape. So be careful and back up everything first.
 

For Windows:

1) Find the prefs.js file.  You may use the search function of your start menu and search for the file prefs.js.  You may also try find the location of the file by going to ...\Netscape\Users\{username}\prefs.js. ("..." is likely to be the "Programs" folder.)

2) To edit the prefs file, use Notepad to load it.  Open the file in the location you found in step 1.

3) Add the following line to the end of the file:

user_pref("network.search.url", "http://www.google.com/keyword/");

4) Don't forget to hit <enter> at the end of the line!

 

For Macintosh:

1) Find the prefs file.  You can find it in ...:preferences:netscape f:netscape preferences. ("..." is your system folder.)

2) To edit the prefs file, use SimpleText or equivalent to load.  Open the file in the location you found in step 1.

3) Add the following line to the end of the file:

user_pref("network.search.url", "http://www.google.com/keyword/");

4) Don't forget to hit <enter> at the end of the line!

For UNIX:

1) Edit the file .netscape/preferences.js in your home directory.

2) Add the following line to the end of the file:

user_pref("network.search.url", "http://www.google.com/keyword/");

4) Don't forget to hit <enter> at the end of the line!

Thanks for Kevin Hecht and Google for providing the insights!

 

This article is provided by Los Angeles Chinese Learning Center, a non-profit organization in Los Angeles, California, and supporter of Google, with references from Google.com, "Security Preferences for Communicator" by Alec B. Plumb, and "Advanced Communicator References" by Jay Garcia and Kevin Hecht .  For more information, please contact us.

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