Greasemonkey Hacks

Hack #50. Search Wikipedia with Google Site Search

Replace Wikipedia's slow search engine with Google's lightning-quick site search.

I hack because I care. Really. I spend a lot of time on Google, and it shows in the number of hacks I've written that customize my experience of Google's services. The same applies to Wikipedia, the free (and freely licensed) online encyclopedia. I Hold Wikipedia in the highest regard, not only as a useful research tool, but as an example of a successful online community.

So, what's my beef with Wikipedia? Their site search is incredibly slow. I freely admit that I've been spoiled by Google. If I even bother using a site's internal search engine (as opposed to, say, searching Google with the site name as an additional keyword), I am instantly annoyed if the site search doesn't come back with useful results in under one second. Simon Willison shares my frustration, and he wrote this hack that modifies Wikipedia's search form to use Google Site Search instead of the site's internal search engine.

The Code

This user script runs on all Wikipedia pages. It uses hardcoded knowledge of Wikipedia's page structure to find the search form (<form id="searchform">), and then modifies the form's action attribute to point to Google Site Search. The search form has two submit buttons, so the script moves them around and directs one of them to Wikipedia's internal search, while the default button goes to Google Site Search.

Save the following user script as wikipedia-googlesearch.user.js ...