1336604 - Allow customized search engines to be set as default

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 1106626

(Firefox :: Search, defect)

Description

[Greg]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/56.0.2924.87 Safari/537.36

Steps to reproduce:

Tried to add custom search engine as default engine


Actual results:

Firefox does not offer an easy way to do this.


Expected results:

Users should be able to take a simple URL string (e.g., https://duckduckgo.com/?kn=1&q=%s) and make this the default search engine. Users used to be able to do this by adding engines to the searchplugins folder but this no longer works.

Comment 1

[ovidiu boca[:Ovidiu]]

Hi, this is an enhancement?

Comment 2

[Carlos [nohamelin]]

It seems a dupe of bug 1326446, or bug 1195005, or others as bug 648398, if that approach will be the chosen one.

Comment 3

[Greg]

(In reply to ovidiu boca[:Ovidiu] from comment #1)
> Hi, this is an enhancement?

I am not sure what you mean by "enhancement"? I view it as a requirement for using a web-browser. I want to be able to use a URL-parameter search engine (e.g., https://duckduckgo.com/?kn=1&kac=-1&kae=d&q=%s) as my default search engine. So if I go to the URL-Awesome-bar or the Search-bar and type something then the https://duckduckgo.com/?kn=1&kac=-1&kae=d&q=%s search engine is the one that is used to process the search.

Here is the process I go through in adding a custom search engine in Google Chrome and Firefox:

### Google Chrome
Settings > Manage search engines > Location: https://duckduckgo.com/?kn=1&kac=-1&kae=d&q=%s > Keyword: DDG > click on the "Make default" button 

[now if I go to the URL-bar and type something the search is run through https://duckduckgo.com/?kn=1&kac=-1&kae=d&q=%s


### Firefox
Ctrl+Shift+O (Show All Bookmarks) > Organize > New Bookmark > Location: https://duckduckgo.com/?kn=1&kac=-1&kae=d&q=%s > Keyword: DDG > NO WAY TO MAKE THIS THE DEFAULT SEARCH ENGINE 

[now if I go to the URL-bar and type something, my just added search engine is only used if I preface the search with DDG. How do I make https://duckduckgo.com/?kn=1&kac=-1&kae=d&q=%s the DEFAULT engine so I do NOT have to preface searches with DDG?

Comment 5

[ovidiu boca[:Ovidiu]]

A bug is marked as an enhancement when it contains suggestions or ideas to improve Firefox.

Comment 6

[Greg]

This bug is a regression.

This functionality used to exist in Firefox when users could add search engines to the "searchplugins" folder (on linux at): /home/$USER/.mozilla/firefox/<gv6krt1c.default>/searchplugins

Mozilla removed the functionality of the searchplugins folder but provided no alternative way to make a custom search engine the default search engine. This bug is a high priority for me as it determines what search engine I can use.

Comment 7

[Carlos [nohamelin]]

You can create a search engine from a XML file as indicated in bug 1236498 comment 7, or with some add-ons.

You can set any of your search engines as the default, whatever its origin or install process, from about:preferences.

Comment 8

[Greg]

Carlos, I don't understand your statement: "You can set any of your search engines as the default, whatever its origin or install process, from about:preferences."

The gist of my bug report is that I can not set "any" of my search engines as the default; I can only set certain ones (e.g., those which are one-off engines). I cannot set my URL-parameter created DuckDuckGo engine as the default engine. Are you saying there is a way to do this at about:preferences? If so, could you explain how?

Comment 9

[Carlos [nohamelin]]

(In reply to Greg from comment #8)
> I cannot set my URL-parameter created DuckDuckGo engine as the
> default engine.

Because that is not a search engine; as you mention in comment 3, that is a bookmark with a keyword set: they can be used in a engine-like way from the urlbar, but these are bookmarks first: they aren't accesible from the search bar, and they can't be managed from about:preferences#search. These two Firefox things are usually confused with each other: the reason that bug 648398 exists. 

You can to move your bookmarks-with-keywords to be real search engines using, by example, [1] or [2], and then manage them in the same way as the search engines shipped by default.


[1]: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/search-engine-creator/
[2]: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/search-engines-export-import/

Comment 10

[Greg]

Having to install an extension to do this is ridiculous. I'm not even trying to get the parameter to "be" a search engine.

Just letting you guys know that what I'm bringing up here is a problem that needs solving. I should be able to set the parameter I'm talking about as the default URL-bar search so a "keyword" does not have to entered for searches. This didn't even used to be a problem and only became one with the introduction of those one-off engines.

Comment 11

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

The idea here is effectively the same as what is described in bug 1106626, and interconnected with bug 648398. I'm going to mark this as duplicate as I don't think there's benefit in keeping this open as well.