Phlo may not seem that useful if you’re working in the browser already, but if you’re working in another application, Phlo is a great way to do a quick search when needed. Here’s how to search websites from your desktop with Phlo.
Download Phlo from the Mac App Store; it’s currently free (regularly $3.99). When you run Phlo, the search bar will appear on your desktop.
The first thing you’ll want to do is customize its Preferences so that it’s just the way you want it. To do this, go to Preferences from the Phlo menu.
In Preferences you can set up a global hotkey that can be used to show/hide the search bar. By default it uses Option+Spacebar. You can also choose where to show Phlo’s icon: on the dock, menu bar, or both dock and menu bar. The icon simply serves as a way to show/hide the search bar.
On the Sites tab in Preferences, you can add, remove and edit your search engines and searchable websites. You can edit the search URL and name if you need to. If you add new websites, you can also test them to make sure they’re working properly.
There are a ton of websites included with Phlo and in different languages, so you probably won’t need to do much here. When you’re done, close out the Preferences window.
When you want to perform a search, you can click the Phlo icon or use the keyboard shortcut. To change the search engine or website, click on the name of the website on the right side of the bar. That’s it! When you enter a search query, the results page will open in your default Web browser.
