Microsoft Azure - Using the Global Search

Azure's Global Search feature provides a central, user friendly location where you can quickly search for and access anything within the portal, which saves your time and improves your workflow.

In this article, we will learn how to use the Azure Portal global search to find any service, instance, documents, or anything that you care about in Azure.

Getting Started with the Global Search

To Use Global Search, Simply click on the Search Bar located at the top of the Azure Portal. When you start typing, you'll notice two sections:

• Search History: Shows your previous searches, so you can quickly return to anything you've searched before.
• Recent: Displays the most recently accessed services, similar to the content on the Azure home Page.

This features saves you from manually searching through the portal but also enables you to find services as instantly. As you type, the results will be updated in real-time without any delay.

For Example You are new to Azure and interested in how to create a VM. So, basically say 'how to create VM', and as you can see in Azure's documentation section, there’s a quick start guide on how to do that.

 Let’s say you went through those steps and it’s asking you to go and look up the virtual machine service. You may type in the virtual machine. There’s the service you were looking for. And this will give you a list of all the virtual machines that you have. So, basically, when you search for a service and you select that service, you get to the initial page for that service. In the VMs, in this case, you are getting to the list of all the VM instances, but if you would be in Security Center, you can jump directly to Security Center.

And here as well, let’s say you forgot how to spell virtual machine fat fingered it. It’s actually smart enough to detect that as well. So, let’s say machine, you add an extra L in there. You still get that. Let’s say also virtual machines generally in the industry, they call them VMs. So, go to VM.

And you can tell that as you type, results are being updated all the time. And there’s no lag or wait time. This is a new improvement with the global search feature. .

And also, this is not only limited to VMs. You can search for any service that is available in Azure. 

Now, let’s say you have done that. you got what you needed out of there, and now you remember about a year ago in a hackathon, you had a service that had to do with, you don’t remember the exact instance name, but you remember that you had the word 'ear' in it.

So, go in there and search for that.  So, under resources, you can see the instance name itself there.

And basically, if you click on that instance, you will go right away. You will jump into that instance. 

Exploring Additional Results with Overflow

Sometimes, you might need to know more about your search results. And Azure also has a reflow, so you come in here and do virtual machine, and as you will see over there, there are more results to display in the marketplace as well as for documentation.

This is an overflow link to be able to open the experience with the same filter criteria that you had before on a new page.

So, basically, what would happen when you have one of those overflows is you would get to a list, you would pass the same filter, and you would get a longer list honoring the filter that you entered in the global search.

Keyboard Shortcut for Quick Access

One more thing is global search is always there for you. So, at any point regardless of what you are doing in the portal, you can always access it by entering the search bar above or there’s a keyboard shortcut, which is G plus slash(G/). And that will also put you into the search menu.

G plus slash engages the global search where you get right away the search history and the recent, but, of course, you can start typing and you can fully navigate using the keyboard without the need of using the mouse. 

Hence, you come to the home page. So within the global search bar, you have the search history, you have the recent. You start to type.

Using Documentation and Learning Resources

The global search isn't limited to just services and instances. But also helps you to find documentation and learning resources. If you’re unsure how to set up a particular service or need guidance, typing keywords like “how to deploy a VM” will bring up relevant guides and tutorials.

Conclusion

Global Search in Azure is a Powerful feature that helps to improve the ability to find and manage resources in the Azure Portal. Whether you're new user or an experienced one, learning this tool can save you time, reduce frustration, and streamline your workflow.