Toggle between search engines in Google Chrome

One way you can quickly toggle to a different search engine is by editing the Keyword for it in your list. With this approach you don't need to change your default search engine.

1. Right click on your Omnibar and click Edit search engines...

2. Look for the DuckDuckGo entry and select it

3. The middle column enter a short and memorable keyword, like du for instance

4. Click Done to close the modal window

In the Omnibar, you can now just type du + Space on your keyboard to toggle DuckDuckGo. Then, just type a search term and off you go.

Here's how it looks in action

If DuckDuckGo does not exist in your list of search engines, you can easily add it.

1. Right click on your Omnibar and click Edit search engines...

2. Scroll to the bottom of the Other search engines section and look for Add a new search engine

3. Enter DuckDuckGo for the search engine name, du (or other) for the keyword, and https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%s&t=canonical for the URL

4. Click Done to close the modal window

there are extensions. One particular is called 'search centre' you literally click on the toolbar, type your query and select which search engine you are using [you have to go and find the ones you want for instance I set imdb as one by going to imdb and right clicking the search box and selecting 'add to search centre']

I wish there was one where it just added a little drop box to the omnibox so you could type your query then choose which engine to use. you can do that in firefox but chrome doesn't seem to have it..

I hope this helps but I know it's not quite what you wanted but it's better than having to mess around with keywords and stuff every time.