How do I do a Google search for the word at the current cursor position?

  1. Go to Tools | External Tools | Customize Tools…. Click New.
  2. In the External Tool Properties dialog, Enter the following into the Command field: http://google.com/search?q=$(CurText)
  3. You will also want to give it a memorable icon. If you enter C:\Windows\System32\shell32.dll or C:\Windows\System32\imageres.dll into the Icon Path, you will get a variety of icons to choose from.
    External Tool Properties
  4. Press OK. The new tool is added to the Tools toolbar.

Hint: This also works for other sites. If I do a search for “fetch” on MDN, the URL shows https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/search?q=fetch. I can replace the query with the CurText variable so that the command becomes https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/search?q=$(CurText).