How to search the internet from your Linux terminal
Have you ever wanted to search the internet from the comfort of your terminal? Contrary to popular belief among new Linux users, it is actually possible! In this guide, we’ll show you how to search the internet from your Linux terminal!
Method 1 – Lynx
The easiest and quickest way you can search the internet from your Linux terminal is through the Lynx text-based internet browser. It’s a small program that is easy to install on most Linux operating systems, and it can handle any website, as it isn’t just a search tool that is configured specifically to search the web.
To use Lynx, you must first install it. Sadly, Lynx isn’t very popular anymore, so you won’t find it pre-installed on many Linux OSes. To get the application set up on your computer, start by opening up a terminal window using Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Shift + T on the keyboard. Then, follow the command-line installation instructions down below to get it working.
Ubuntu
On Ubuntu Linux, you can get the Lynx text-based web browser up and running using the following Apt command in a terminal.
sudo apt install lynx
Debian
Need to get Lynx working on Debian Linux? Run the Apt-get installation command to get it.
sudo apt-get install lynx
Arch Linux
To install Lynx on Arch Linux, run the following Pacman command below.
sudo pacman -S lynx
Fedora
Those on Fedora Linux will be able to get the Lynx app up and running using the Dnf command in a terminal window.
sudo dnf install lynx
OpenSUSE
On OpenSUSE Linux computers, run the following Zypper command. With it, you will be able to get the latest release of Lynx working.
sudo zypper install lynx
Once you’ve gotten the Lynx web browser open, run the lynx command to open up the browser. When the Lynx web browser is launched, follow the step-by-step instructions below to learn how to search the web with it.
Step 1: On the keyboard, look at the bottom of the browser. In this area, you will see a readout of all of the various commands available in Linux. Press the H button on the keyboard to access the “Help” area.
Step 2: Now that you’ve made it into the “Help” area, use the Down arrow on the keyboard to move to the very bottom of the page. You can also use the mouse scroll-wheel.
Step 3: At the bottom of the page, there is a list of search engines. These engines are Ask.com, Baidu, Bing, Dogpile, Goo, Google, Hakia, IceRocket, Indeed, Lexxe, Search.com, Rambler, WebCrawler, and Yahoo!.
Highlight “Google” using the arrows and press the Enter key to go to the website. Or, if you’re not a fan of Google, select a different link. However, Google plays very well with Lynx.
Step 4: Using the arrow keys, select the search box. Keep in mind that you may need to press the arrow keys a few times till the cursor is in the text box area.
Step 5: Start typing out your search query into the search box. Then, press the Enter key. By pressing Enter, you will see your search results.
Method 2 – S-Search
If you’re not up for using a text-based web browser, another way you can search the internet via the terminal is with S-Search, a command-line utility that can search a wide variety of search sources. It supports everything from Google, to Overstock, Steam, and others.
Installing the S-Search program on Linux is best done with the Brew package manager. To get Brew working on your computer, follow the guide on the subject. Once you’ve gotten Brew working, use the command below to get S-Search.
brew install s-search
Alternatively, if you’re not a huge fan of the Linux Brew tool, it is also possible to get the program via the Go programming language package manager. If you prefer to install the software in this way, head over to the S-Search website, as we will not cover it here.
Once you’ve gotten S-Search working on your computer, return to the terminal and execute the following command to do a search.
s thing to look up
After entering the command into the terminal prompt, press the Enter key. Instantly, your default web browser will open with a Google search page.
While the Google search provider is useful, you may not be a fan of Google. Thankfully, It is also possible to search through other services. Here’s how to do it.
First, run s -l to view available search providers. Then, use the -p switch to search with a provider. For example, to search Duckduckgo for Ubuntu, you’d do:
s -p duckduckgo Ubuntu
For more information on the S-Search program, take a look at the help entry. You can view the help entry with the s –help command.
s --help
