Internet Explorer 6 allows you to search the web in a couple different ways. You can use the search assistant by clicking on Search in the toolbar or you can search directly from the address bar. Unfortunately, Internet Explorer uses MSN as its default search engine. You may instead prefer Google, Yahoo or another search engine. Here is the way to change the default search engine.

To change the side bar search assistant to a different default search engine, first open Internet Explorer and click on View | Explorer Bar | Search. This will open the side panel for searching. Select Change Preferences and then select Change Internet Search Behavior. You can now select your favorite search engine from the list. You may have an animated character to help you with searches. You can change the character or choose to get rid of the animated search character here if you want. Now, anything you search for from the side bar will use the search engine you selected.

To change the default search engine used when you type in keywords in the address bar, back in the search side panel under Change Preferences | Change Internet Search Behavior click on With Classic Internet Search. Close and reopen Internet Explorer. The side panel will now have a Customize option on the menu bar. Click on Customize and then on Autosearch settings. This will bring you to a second dialogue box that will allow you to select the default search engine for address bar searches. This can be different from the side bar search engine. You can now close the side bar search and use the address bar to search with your selected search engine.

If your favorite search engine is not listed by Internet Explorer, you may be able to use it anyway if the search engine has an option to make it your default search engine in Internet Explorer.

Happy searching!