I received an Apple Software Update notice that there was a new version of Safari for my Mac. I installed it, but now my search box in the right corner is gone. Where did it go?
The separate search box is gone in Safari 6, as this most recent version of Apple's browser dispenses with having two different places for Web addresses and search terms. Instead, it has adopted the unified text bar used by some other browsers (notably, Google Chrome).
With the Smart Search Field (as Apple calls it), you can enter either a URL or a set of search keywords into the box. When you hit the Enter key, the browser analyzes the text you entered and figures out if you want to go to a specific Web address or if you want to search the Web for the requested keywords. The presence of space between the words you enter usually dictates what you get; for example, typing “nytimes†typically takes you to a Web site, while typing “ny tim es†rounds up a list of search-engine results.
The search engine Safari uses is based on whichever one you have selected in the program preferences. If Safari is using Google by default and you would rather see results from Bing or Yahoo (which is the same as Bing), you can change to the other search engine.
With the browser open, go to the Safari menu and select Preferences; you can also press the Command and comma keys in Safari to summon the Preferences box. In the Safari Preferences box, click on the General tab. Next to the Default Search Engine line, use the drop-down menu to select Yahoo or Bing (or to switch back to Google) and close the Preferences box.
