Treblog

Ever since the people @ Opera came up with the "g <space> search for" address bar functionality, I've been using that way of searching Google. I did however notice that while it does work it didn't work as fast as a regual Google search. Going to Google.nl and starting my search there yields the same results but it's quicker. Yesterday I found the source of the problem. The word to remember here is source.

When you use the "g <space> search for" address bar functionality this request is sent to Google:
http://www.google.com/search?q=%s&sourceid=opera&num=%i&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

Opera offers the possibility to add/create your personal searches. The Opera help file tells how to do it.

To add a search, simply right-click (Ctrl-click on Mac) in the site's search field and select "Create search" from the menu. Enter a name for your search, and a keyword, which can be used for searching directly from the address bar. Then click OK.

When you do this @ Google you end up with a different request:
http://www.google.nl/search?hl=nl&source=hp&q=%s&btnG=Google+zoeken&meta=&aq=f&oq=

If I replace the former request with the latter I get my results much quicker!

The standard Google search in Opera goes to Google.com whereas my self created one goes to Google.nl. A simple ping test reveals Google.nl is quicker to respond! Google.com: 107 ms, Google.nl: 31 ms.