this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2023

20 points (56.2% liked)

Linux

48209 readers

995 users here now

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

Rules

Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
No misinformation
No NSFW content
No hate speech, bigotry, etc

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Since when did Firefox make it so difficult to set custom search engine? (feddit.uk)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

66 comments fedilink hide all child comments

So been moving around a lot with browsers, waterfox, librewolf and very recently degoogle chromium, figured id look at Firefox and holy theres less than half the option in setting then there were afew years back but I gotta say the biggest sin is that adding custom search engine is obfuscated, and the chooses of engines are google, bing, duckduckgo and fucking Amazon! Wtf is that about? But anyway all these search engines are pretty awful including duckduckgo but beyond that the browser scene is a joke, mullvad are about the only company I feel compatible with using now

Edit: instead of saying how easy it is to add custom search engines, I'd like to know why the "add search engine" feature in settings is gone?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (4 children)

@squid True...Harder now to add a custom search engine unless you visit it and then click the url on top to get a dropdown to add it...but manually adding it is hard.

Speaking of search engines I highly recommend searx.neocities.org/ - it randomly uses the best Searx instances. No ads, no tracking...

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Here's another one worth a try. https://4get.ca

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

@sic_semper_tyrannis Oh nice! I'll have a deeper look. Thx

[–] TheDarkBanana87 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

How about startpage?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

@TheDarkBanana87 As far as I know they have been bought by an ad-company en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Startpag… - but SearX supports Startpage too. Just without the BS. I cannot trust any company honestly. They are incentivized to kinda lie and exaggerate. And search engines ran by companies....are terrible. If their business model is to sell you ads, they will track you one way or another, and if not today, they will do it next year.

[–] TheDarkBanana87 2 points 1 year ago

Thanks for the heads up. I mainly use Startpage. Maybe its time to try SearX

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've heard of searx never used it though

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

@squid I use it daily. We ran an instance too. It is simply great. As good as Google, DDG, and the like are, since it is using them.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So its an agitator, will it directly communicate with googelz bing ddg? Or does it use an IP hiding techniques?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

@squid

Searx does not share users' IP addresses or search history with the search engines from which it gathers results.

- read more here en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Searx and see the source code here github.com/searxng/searxng

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'd love to try using it more. How do you add it to Firefox?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

@smallaubergine @squid

https://searx.neocities.org/ most search engines get recognized in Firefox. Simply visit the link then right click the url and you should see a menu entry like: Add Searx as your search engine.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Thank you! I guess I should have mentioned I'm on mobile. But it was pretty easy to add manually once I read the directions

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So when you do go to add the engine you provided, what do I need to append after the url to enable searching from the browser address bar? Everything I've tried returns a 404

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

@bobs_monkey searx.neocities.org/ most search engines get recognized in Firefox. Simply visit the link then right click the url and you should see a menu entry like: Add Searx as your search engine.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ah my bad, I meant Firefox android. I've been hunting around and am not really coming up with anything

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

@bobs_monkey searx.neocities.org/#?q=%s

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Brilliant, thank you!!