How to Use the Clipboard in a Google Search?

Questions & Suggestions
1

I’ve searched for an answer to this and surprisingly no one else has asked about it, maybe because it’s so simple, but I can’t figure it out. (Sorry, after having KM sitting active on my Mac for over a year and a half, I just started using it yesterday after upgrading to v 7, so I’m a quintessential n00B.)

I simply want a macro that will:
Use Google search with the clipboard as the search string. Ideally, I don’t really want a floating modal box to appear but rather to open a new tab, and start a google.com search with the clipboard already in. (Note: I only use Firefox.)

Normally I use DuckDuckGo but for image and people searches, Google is vastly better for that.

TIA…this is my first post here. Version 7 looks awesome so I’m psyched to get into it more deeply.
Rowan

2

What I do is just copy and hit a hotkey to initate Google Search or DuckDuckGo and paste it and the results will then appear in the Web. Keyboardmaestro is such a great application that saves you a LOT of time and if you want to be highly productive you need to use it. Please see the macros I posted here sometime ago - they are so simple but saves much time. Also, you need to follow Keyboardmaestro on Twitter - they post and retweet very helpful tricks and macros. Hope this helpfu.

3

I have a macro that uses the selected text in any app/document to open a Google Search in Chrome. I'll post it below.
You can probably make it work for FireFox, but it is not as easy to control FF as Chrome or Safari.

EDIT: See my post below for a macro that uses FireFox

Search Using Google Chrome.kmmacros (7.7 KB)

VER: 1.0 Last Update: August 15, 2015
Author: @JMichaelTX at KM forum

PURPOSE: Use Selection to do Google Search, or IF URL, just open the URL in Chrome.

HOW TO USE:
(1) Select text, or URL, to search for.
(2) Run this Macro.

Pasted image726×1003 164 KB

1 Like
4

Hey rowan,

Firefox is not at all scriptable (unlike Safari and Google Chrome), but there are a few tricks most people don't know about.

Using a Keyboard Maestro Execute Shell Script Action:

Basic Google Search:

open -a Firefox "http://www.google.com/search?q=`pbpaste`"

Google Phrase Search:

open -a Firefox "http://www.google.com/search?q=\"`pbpaste`\""

Wikipedia Phrase Search:

open -a Firefox "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=\"`pbpaste`\""

Very simple.

-Chris

5

@rowan, thank's to the above post by Chris, my macro can be easily changed to use FireFox instead of Chrome.

###Here's the FireFox Version:
Google Search Using FireFox.kmmacros (6.4 KB)

The main change was the last Action:

6

this is brilliant and extremely efficient