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Search Google.com and NOT Google.nl or whatever localised version

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Dear developers,

Astonishingly, I appear to be among the few that cares about privacy. In my opinion, releasing Firefox Quantum without the NoScript addon was a mistake! But that is not my question today.

I would like Firefox to be configured so that it uses Google.COM for search queries, and preferably 'encrypted.google.com'. Pretty straight forward question; but I could not find any answer.

Right now, when using the address bar to search, firefox directs me to Google.NL and not Google.COM.

The result is that, for each link clicked, Google will know which link i clicked, since they track the URLs. There are addons that rewrite the URL so that privacy is returned to the user and Google does not know what website links are clicked. But this only works for Google.COM and not Google.NL. I seriously do not know why ANYONE on the planet would want Google to track them for every search query and website they click; tracking is evil!

But alas, many do not care about the mass surveillance and tracking of user activity on the web. Privacy is something that few care about, it seems. However, please be aware that Firefox is the only usable browser for people that value privacy, as it is one of the few browsers not under corporate control and is open source so people can check the source code. I like you, but for some reason Firefox does not focus much on privacy at all, probably because I am one of the few who would like to make use of my constitutional rights.

Could any of you help me to configure Firefox so that I can search without being tracked? Thank you so much!

Dear developers, Astonishingly, I appear to be among the few that cares about privacy. In my opinion, releasing Firefox Quantum without the NoScript addon was a mistake! But that is not my question today. I would like Firefox to be configured so that it uses Google.COM for search queries, and preferably 'encrypted.google.com'. Pretty straight forward question; but I could not find any answer. Right now, when using the address bar to search, firefox directs me to Google.NL and not Google.COM. The result is that, for each link clicked, Google will know which link i clicked, since they track the URLs. There are addons that rewrite the URL so that privacy is returned to the user and Google does not know what website links are clicked. But this only works for Google.COM and not Google.NL. I seriously do not know why ANYONE on the planet would want Google to track them for every search query and website they click; tracking is evil! But alas, many do not care about the mass surveillance and tracking of user activity on the web. Privacy is something that few care about, it seems. However, please be aware that Firefox is the only usable browser for people that value privacy, as it is one of the few browsers not under corporate control and is open source so people can check the source code. I like you, but for some reason Firefox does not focus much on privacy at all, probably because I am one of the few who would like to make use of my constitutional rights. Could any of you help me to configure Firefox so that I can search without being tracked? Thank you so much!

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Try setting https://startpage.com as your default search engine, it's google result without the tracking.

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Try setting https://startpage.com as your default search engine, it's google result without the tracking.

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Thank you, that was an excellent suggestion! After having added Startpage to my list of search engines and selected it as default search engine, everything now works as I would have liked!

The one remaining issue would be that Firefox in my opinion should have better privacy defaults - cookies, scripts and the default search engine are key points here.

Thanks - my current question is solved!