Site search shortcut keys not working in Brave browser

Hey everyone, I’ve noticed that the Site search shortcut keys aren’t working for me after the update in the Brave browser.

Has anyone else experienced this issue? Is it a known problem or a bug with Brave?

Site search shortcut not working in Brave browser

Description of the issue:

The Site search shortcut does not work in the Brave browser. Normally, pressing the given shortcut key should activate the search bar, but nothing happens.

Steps to Reproduce:

Actual Result:

Pressing the assign shortcut key does nothing in Brave.

Expected result:

Pressing the shortcut key should focus on the search bar, allowing immediate input of the website.

Reproduces how often:

Brave Version:

Version 1.76.73 Chromium: 134.0.6998.45 (Official Build) (64-bit)

Reproducible on current live release (yes/no):

Yes

Additional Information:

  • Tried disabling extensions, but the issue persists.
  • Works fine before the update.
  • Occurs in both normal and private browsing modes.
  • Checked Brave settings but found no conflicting keybinds.
5 Likes
Good work updating your Original Post

Please edit your Original Post (“OP”) above, in order to reflect the template and guidelines (see, following), and Brave Support may be more than happy to assist you.

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Done the editing work now please respond

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@Gaurav_212005

I suggest that you study the replies by Brave Support team member @Mattches - regarding how to add search engines.

In order to be sure that you touched all the bases:

All search engines are suddenly gone, except the default one - #18 by Mattches

All search engines are suddenly gone, except the default one - #23 by Mattches

All search engines are suddenly gone, except the default one - #25 by Mattches


What are bangs, and how can I use them in Brave Search?

https://search.brave.com/help/bangs

There are currently 12,474 bangs:

https://search.brave.com/bangs


1 Like

In the latest version, only custom search shortcuts can be retained, but the feature that allows users to jump directly to a specific website by entering search letters has been deleted. This feature is quite useful and is also an advantage of Brave Browser. Can it be restored?

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I can’t access this shortcut key now. It is showing invalid, please get that previous feature it was simple and easy to use.

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@Gaurav_212005 it’s because you’re not doing it proper. Your shortcut is working but the issue is your URL.

Such as for Brave Search you wouldn’t put in https://search.brave.com/ but you would put in https://search.brave.com/search?q=%s. You go to the search and type in a query. Then search engines usually have Q (for query) = and it puts the word you typed in. You replace the word with %s.,

For ChatGPT, you would need to have https://chatgpt.com/?q=%s for a normal prompt. If you want it to have the Search option enabled on that prompt then instead use https://chatgpt.com/?q=%s&hints=search

1 Like

I am trying to switch permanently from Chrome to Brave.

One feature I use excessively in chrome is the Custom Search Engine, Site Search. I use this feature in two ways:

  1. I take advantage of the site search using the %s query input.
  2. I use the site search as direct access to a URL with a shortcut, with no search required.

In Chrome, I can add a custom site search without the %s value and when I type the shortcut, pressing enter brings me directly to the URL assigned.

When I first set up Brave, it allowed me to add Site Searches the same way, without %s, but I just tried again now and I’m being prevented.

How to I set up URL bar single word shortcuts in Brave if this path from Chrome does not work?

2 Likes

Yeah I got your point, but I don’t wanna share it. I only want that it should open up the site instead of searching them something in that side and for that purpose I had given them shortcut key.

Is there any solution for that?

1 Like

That’s a bookmark

Which indeed we can’t add a shortcut to trigger a bookmark to my knowledge. I’m not aware of the Site Search ever working for people to put it in as just a site without the %s query part or to navigate.

Let me tag in @Mattches to see if he knows anything.

Mattches, similar request/complaint was put today at Disappearing tab groups and site search short cut not working

1 Like

I just noticed this change after updating today as well. For quite a long time I’ve used custom search engines without a %s placeholder as a way quickly open sites. This mimics the behavior of Firefox’s mechanism to add keyword shortcuts to a bookmark which also allows you to type a word to open a bookmark. With the search engine approach you have to set the URL in the engine instead of attaching it directly to a bookmark of course, but it acted basically the same. It seems to be a fairly common recommendation online as well when looking to emulate Firefox’s keyword shortcuts.

There does also seem to be an issue that was recently opened on Brave’s GitHub repository that’s reporting the same thing: https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/issues/44450

4 Likes

Yeah buddy thank you for understanding it.

1 Like

yeah please look into the problem

@cxdv @Gaurav_212005 I just was testing and originally was able to see the behavior as you both mentioned in Chrome. But then I checked and it had an update. Upon updating Chrome it seems they have the same behavior. This would mean it’s an upstream change.

Not sure why they are now preventing this little cheat/trick, perhaps because of some who misunderstood how it was meant to work and was having issues with searches?

But now it just would be a question of whether Brave can implement something themselves. Whether it be adding shortcut options to bookmarks or if can bring back the capability for website URL to be put in without the search query %s aspect.

1 Like

Okay but I tried using the Chrome with the updated version, I can’t find an problem over there, but I hope that brave bring back the previous capability.

@Gaurav_212005 try adding over on new Chrome. You’ll see like below:

This is on version as you see below:

Existing shortcuts stay there but if you try to use it, they don’t work. And if you go to edit, you’ll see that it shows not valid. So things you had added before would still be visible there but unusable

@Gaurav_212005,
Not super clear on what you’re describing here.

The “site search” shortcut keys (as shown below) refer to the shortcuts to that search engine while you’re in the address bar:

For example, using the shortcuts from the image above, if I enter the address bar and type :g then hit Space or Tab, I see that I’m now searching via Google:

image

However, you state:

These shortcut keys work only if you type them into the address bar that you’re already focused in – they will not jump or move focus to the address bar if the focus is somewhere else on the page/browser.

To jump/move focus to the address bar from somewhere else in the browser, the default shortcut is Ctrl + L (Command + L on macOS). Note that this shortcut can be changed to the desired keystroke by going to brave://settings/system/shortcuts and changing the Focus location action key command:

So to summarize with an example, if I want to jump to the address bar from somewhere else in the browser, then search using a specific engine (lets say Google again) within the address bar via those search engine shortcut keys, I would:

  1. Press Ctrl + L (or whatever custom shortcut keystroke you may have changed it to) to jump focus to the address bar
  2. Type :g then Space or Tab to initiate the search shortcut
  3. Type my query then hit Enter
2 Likes

@Mattches unfortunately there are a few topics opened on this. One of them I responded to at Please get that previous Shortcut for the web searches - #4 and had tagged you on.

What he’s referencing is prior to the newer Chromium update you used to be able to put in any URL, such as https://chatgpt.com/ and set a shortcut, like maybe /ch. That would then be saved as a search engine, though it wouldn’t be able to do a search on it. So when I would go type in /ch and hit enter, it would go to ChatGPT.

But now when you go to do it, the line can’t be saved. It requires the query portion such as https://chatgpt.com/?q=%s. Then it works as you mentioned in the last reply, where they have to do the space or tab and type in a search query which then takes them to the results.

So difference is old one let them go to the main page without any result.

Old setup:

On this one you see it doesn’t say it’s invalid and it could be saved. This is how it was on Chrome and Brave.

Now after update:

Chrome and Brave don’t allow to Add or Save if it doesn’t have the q=%s portion.

2 Likes

@Saoiray thank you for clarifying.
While not entirely convenient, it seems like the solution would be to simply add the ?q=%s to the end of the search engine URL string and everything should behave normally.

You can even have it set to do this automatically (as discussed before) by deleting the old entry for chatgpt (or whatever the relevant search is), visiting the site and performing a search.

1 Like

@Mattches iffy. The way they had it served where just typing in the shortcut and hitting enter immediately opened up the page, like they clicked on a bookmark.

If you put in the query portion, then the way it works is just typing in the shortcut makes it appear as normal text and would be searched on your default search engine. So like below is set to Google:

image

If I tab to Search Brave or I hit Space, then all it does it switch the search engine but it doesn’t go anywhere.
image

So then to activate it and go to the website, I have to type in something. But then it direct to something such as https://search.brave.com/search?q=.&source=desktop

image

But if had worked the way they were talking, I could have had :br set to go straight to https://search.brave.com/ So go to address bar, type in :br and hit Enter, then it would go to https://search.brave.com/ landing page.

All they were doing is using Site Search as another form of Bookmark, but with the capability of adding a specific shortcut for easier navigation.

3 Likes