rc.lua

 -- search
  awful.key({modkey }, "g", function()
               awful.prompt.run({ prompt = "<span foreground='#7f9f7f'>Google Search:</span> "},
                                promptbox[mouse.screen].widget,
                                function(input)
                                   awful.util.spawn_with_shell("searchGoogle.sh " .. input)
                                end, nil
               )
  end),
  awful.key({modkey }, "s", function()
     awful.prompt.run({ prompt = "<span foreground='#7f9f7f'>Scholar Search:</span> "},
                      promptbox[mouse.screen].widget,
                      function(input)
                         awful.util.spawn_with_shell("searchScholar.sh " .. input)
                      end, nil
     )
  end),
  awful.key({modkey, "Shift" }, "g", function()
                                local f = io.popen("xsel -o")
                                local input = f:read("*a")
                                f:close()
                                
                                awful.util.spawn_with_shell("searchGoogle.sh " .. input)
  end),
  awful.key({modkey, "Shift" }, "y", function()
                                local f = io.popen("xsel -o")
                                local input = f:read("*a")
                                f:close()
                                
                                awful.util.spawn_with_shell("searchScholar.sh " .. input)
  end),

searchGoogle.sh

#!/bin/zsh

term=$@
foo=''
#search with surfraw
sr google $term
#wait until the window exists and registers with the WM
while [ -z "$foo" ]; do
    foo=$(wmctrl -l |grep -i "$term - Google Search")
    sleep .5
done
#could use wmctrl -a, but it's not always reliable in awesome with dual screens
wmctrl -r "$term - Google Search" -b add,demands_attention

searchScholar.sh

#!/bin/zsh

term=$@
foo=''
#search with surfraw
sr scholar $term
#wait until the window exists and registers with the WM
while [ -z "$foo" ]; do
    foo=$(wmctrl -l |grep -i "$term - Scholar Search")
    sleep .5
done
#could use wmctrl -a, but it's not always reliable in awesome with dual screens
wmctrl -r "$term - Scholar Search" -b add,demands_attention

xmonad selectSearch and promptSearch in awesome-wm using Surfraw.