SEARCH: Web search from the command line

Add this small utility to your MATLAB path to allow quick web searches from the command line.

I spend a lot of time in MATLAB, but if I want to do a quick web search, I have to switch to my browser window and use the mouse or keyboard shortcuts to put the cursor in the search bar before I can search. This small and simple utility on my MATLAB path relieves me of this common chore. It's also really easy to adapt the short code to search whatever site you want.

SEARCH by itself opens http://www.google.com in a browser.

SEARCH SEARCHTERM1 SEARCHTERM2 SEARCHTERM3 ... searches Google for the given search terms, displaying results in a browser.

SEARCH -LUCKY SEARCHTERM1 SEARCHTERM2 SEARCHTERM3 ... searches using the "I'm Feeling Lucky" feature.

SEARCH uses similar syntax to the WEB function with the exception that it does not expect a URL. Rather, any number of search terms may be used. All other inputs and outputs for WEB work for SEARCH, e.g. [STAT, BROWSER, URL] = SEARCH(SEARCHTERM,'-NOTOOLBAR','-NEW'). The -BROWSER option is enabled by default. Use -MATLABBROWSER to disable.