I know it's possible to open up specific URL's with python's webbrowser module. Is it possible to use strings as search queries with it, or another module? Say in an engine like Google or Yahoo?
Of course it's possible - they're just GET requests. So long as you format the URL properly with the query string correct and all (http://google.com/search?q=query - look at the site to see what it needs to be), it'll work fine. It's just a URL.
Python Web Search