If you like the idea of the Unix-Netscape Everything Search Button but are OS or browser challanged, here is the javascript that will work for Internet Explorer on Windows:
javascript:q=(document.frames.length?-1:document.selection.createRange().text);if(q<=0){void(q=prompt('Enter text to search E2.'+(q?'':'Gimme some text to search E2'),''))};if(q)location.href='http://everything2.com/?node='+escape(q)
You'll need to create a favorite and replace the location with the code above for it to work.