Another Hack by the pickle: Hacking Netscape to use Google for Location box searches

Netscape will automatically search the WWW if you enter some text in its Location box. Unfortunately, the search engine used - Netscape's own - is less than stellar. Here's how to make Google take over the searching.

If you're looking for the IE version of this hack, take a look at this page.

To make Netscape Navigator use Google as its Location box search engine:

1. Open a COPY of Navigator with ResEdit or other resource editor.
2. Open the 'text' resources.
3. Open resource ID #3011, called "config."
4. Change the Internal Net Search URL line to read:
   
   config("internal_url.net_search.url","http://www.google.com/");

For Communicator, the hack is a bit more complex:

1. Open a COPY of Communicator with HexEdit. Make sure you're editing the resource fork.
2. Do a search for "keyword." You'll find a line that looks like this:
   
   "http://keyword.netscape.com/");
   
   
3. Note that the part we're going to change takes up 16 characters. This is IMPORTANT!
4. Change this portion to read:
   
   "http://www.google.com/");      [press space bar six times; do not insert this bracketed part]
   
   
5. That's a total of SIX spaces after the semicolon, before the next character. If you fail to insert these spaces, Communicator will refuse to boot with a type -199 error. There's a checksum on the length of these internal preferences, and it's easier to fill in garbage than it is to change the checksum.

DISCLAIMER: I take no responsibility for ANY damage you do to your computer, your software, yourself, or others as a result of this hack. YOU, the user, are ENTIRELY RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR OWN ACTIONS.

Recognition with which this hack has been honoured:

• Featured on ResExcellence, Monday, 22 October 2001.