# Using Unified Search in the Amazon Web Services Management Console
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The Amazon Web Services Management Console includes a search bar at the top of every Amazon console page. This search bar can search the Amazon Web Services service documentation and blog topics, and take you directly to Amazon service console pages. It can also return the resources in your Amazon Web Services account when you have appropriate Resource Explorer permissions.

With [Unified Search](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/awsconsolehelpdocs/latest/gsg/using-search.html), users can search for resources from ***any*** Amazon Web Services service console without having to first navigate to the Amazon Resource Explorer console. Unified Search returns regional results from the current Region by default, or cross-region results if an aggregator index is configured.

Access to resource results in Unified Search is permission-based. Users with, at minimum, the permissions in the `[AWSResourceExplorerReadOnlyAccess](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/aws-managed-policy/latest/reference/AWSResourceExplorerReadOnlyAccess.html)` managed policy can immediately search for resources in any Region where they have access, with results varying based on their permission level and the type of indexes available in the Region.

**Tip**  
When you want to use the Unified Search bar to search specifically for resources, begin your search query by typing **/Resources**. This causes Amazon resources to be ranked higher in the search results than results that do not represent resources.

**Topics**
+ [Checking if resource search is enabled](#check-unified-search)
+ [Enabling Unified Search](#enable-unified-search)

**Important**  
Unified Search automatically inserts a wildcard character (`*`) operator at the end of the first keyword in the string. This means that unified search results include resources that match any string that starts with the specified keyword.  
The search performed by the **Query** text box on the [Resource search](https://console.amazonaws.cn/resource-explorer/home#/explorer) page in the Resource Explorer console does ***not*** automatically append a wildcard character. You can insert a `*` manually after any term in the search string.

## Checking if resource search is enabled
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To see if resource search is enabled in your Amazon Web Services account, verify that the following requirements for Resource Explorer are met:
+ Users must have, at minimum, the permissions in the `[AWSResourceExplorerReadOnlyAccess](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/aws-managed-policy/latest/reference/AWSResourceExplorerReadOnlyAccess.html)` managed policy. Resource Explorer automatically provides search functionality, with results varying based on permission level and index type (user-owned indexes provide complete results, Resource Explorer-owned indexes provide partial results).
+ (Optional) For cross-region search results, you can create an aggregator index in a Region of your choice. Without an aggregator, Unified Search returns regional results from the current Region.

## Enabling Unified Search
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Resource search in Unified Search is automatically available when users have appropriate Resource Explorer permissions. To enhance Unified Search functionality with full results, cross-Region results, or custom views, you can optionally complete the following steps:

1. (Optional) [Creating user-owned indexes for enhanced Resource Explorer functionality](manage-service-turn-on-region.md) to create user-owned indexes for complete search results.

1. (Optional) [Enabling cross-Region search by creating an aggregator index](manage-aggregator-region.md) to enable cross-Region search results.

1. (Optional) [Configuring a Resource Explorer view to provide access to resource searches](customer-views.md#configure-views) for specific filtering requirements or access control.