Using another search engine in Chrome: a way other than text strings in the address bar?

Is there another way to change search engines? Having to put yt, az, etc. before things I want to search elsewhere besides Google is pretty annoying when I find myself using Chrome. It's one of the main reasons I don't use it more often.

 

Click the Gear icon, select Options. Under Search, change the default search engine. Then, the newly-selected one will be the one that is used without a key word.

If you mean changing the search engine temporarily as in through a dropdown menu (like IE9), then no, there is no way to do that as far as I know. But really, is typing a letter in front of a search keyboard that bad? It's how I search all the different search engines I have in Opera, even before Chrome was released

 

Yes, it is that bad. I've never seen anyone not on the Chrome Defense Force say anything positive about that design choice.

Google needs to fire their human factors guy.

 

I don't use Chrome, and I don't especially like Chrome, but I do like that feature. It harks back to the efficiency of command line prompts, being able to type a single letter to select a search engine, instead of having to select from a list of search engines. Plus, it allows the interface to be cleaner and more minimalistic. I have Wikipedia set to "w," Google to "g," Youtube to "Y," and Bing as default. So, I think it's quicker and a better option, although you probably hold a different view.