When you right-click a word in programs like Safari or in word processors, in addition to options for copying and pasting, or perhaps changing the style of the word, there might be a couple of options for looking the word up. The first of these is a quick-access link for the word’s definition in the Dictionary, and the second is to search Google for the word, which will launch Safari and perform a standard Google search for it.
While Google is the default search option used here, you can use alternative search engines as well, including Bing and Yahoo.
How to Change the Default Search Engine in Safari for Contextual Menu Searches?
The contextual menu’s Web search options are shared by Apple’s Safari browser, and will reflect whatever search engine you have set as the default for that browser. Therefore, to change the search engine used in the OS X contextual menu, simply change that used in Safari:
- Go to the Safari Preferences
- Select a desired search engine in the General section
Note that this setting also applies for the Web search feature in Spotlight, so if you search for a term in Spotlight and then choose the option to search the Web, it will also launch Safari using whatever search engine you have set for it.