User:Coopuser
Welcome to the home of the Custom Search Wikipedia skin!
!["Screenshot of Wikipedia Custom Search"](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/a5/Wikipedia_custom_search.gif/400px-Wikipedia_custom_search.gif)
The Custom Search skin offers a contextual search experience, made possible with the power of Google Custom Search. Enabling this skin will allow you to use Google Custom Search to search across all Wikipedia articles for a given topic, as well as find relevant pages linked from the Wikipedia page that you are currently on, i.e., all the relevant linked pages on the current topic of interest. The search results will appear inline at the top of the Wikipedia page you are viewing, and can easily be dismissed via the "Clear" button. You can enable this skin if you are using either the default Monobook style, or the new Beta Vector style.
Here are the required steps for you to use the Custom Search skin:
Make sure to save your changes (you may have to type in a CAPTCHA to successfully submit changes). Reload your current page in your browser (Hold down Shift while clicking Reload), so the above changes take effect. |
Your search box should now be updated. When you search, results will show up inline in the current page, instead of opening up a new window, or tab. The appearance of the search box will depend on the skin you are using (Vector or Monobook), as shown in the screenshots.
!["Wikipedia Custom Search Box in Vector Skin"](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b4/Wikipedia_searchbox_vector.png)
Remember that in order to enable this new contextual search experience, you need a user account and need to log in to Wikipedia. When you search, your results will show up inline at the top of the Wikipedia page you are viewing. You can click on the relevant tab to toggle between all Wikipedia matches, just the matching Wikipedia pages linked from the current page, or external (non-Wikipedia) linked pages. If a Wikipedia page does not have a lot of content or links, it is possible that there are only a few linked results.
!["Wikipedia Custom Search Tabs"](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9d/Wikipedia_search_tabs.gif)