How To: Search for Google+ Profiles and Posts Using Chrome's Search Engine Settings

One of my biggest frustrations with Google+ right now is the inability to search my stream, as well as the lack of any bookmarking features. To find posts I want to refer to, I either have to type in the name of the person who posted the status, or I have to keep hitting the "More" button to find what I need. Both ways are inefficient.

I'm going to show you how to add search functionality to Google+ using the open search feature of Google Chrome. Thanks to +Christian Nenneman for the tip.

You must have Google Chrome for this to work (download here if you don't have it yet).

Step 1 Open a new tab or browser window.

Got Google Chrome? Good. Now open a new tab or browser window, and type in:
chrome://settings/searchEngines

Hit Enter.

Step 2 Scroll to the bottom of the Search Engine box.

You'll see a box that looks like this:

Scroll all the way to the bottom, until you see boxes to add a new search engine.

Step 3 Add Search in Posts

1. In the box that says "Add a new search engine", type: Google+ Posts.
2. In the box that says "Keyword", type: post.
3. In the box that says "URL with %s in place of query", type:
   {google:baseURL}search?q=site:plus.google.com inurl:posts %s

Step 4 Add Search for Profiles

1. In the box that says "Add a new search engine", type: Google+ Profiles.
2. In the box that says, "Keyword", type: profile.
3. In the box that says "URL with %s in place of query", type:
   {google:baseURL}search?q=%s&tbs=prfl:e

If you want to primarily search Google+ (instead of Google, Bing, or whatever your current preference is), you can mouse over and click on the "Make Default" button.

Step 5  Start searching!

If you didn't make it your default, start your google+ profile searches with the word "profile", and your google+ post searches with the word "post" (the keywords you set in steps 3 & 4). If you did make one of them your default, you can omit the "profile" or "post" keyword and just start typing a name in the address bar. You'll notice in grey text your Default search has been changed to Google+ Profiles Search.

When you hit Enter, this is what you'll see:

Let's check it out with "Google+ Posts" as the Default search. Say you wanted to see what people are saying about Facebook.  Type in "Facebook" in the address bar and hit Enter:

This is what you'll see:

Now they just have to include post search inside Google+ itself, and we'll be all set!