Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

How do I manage/change my search provider to something not Google (like DuckDuckGo)?

more options

I'm running Firefox 32 right now, but noticed this problem in Aurora first: There is no place to manage search engines, and now that I've installed "engines" for StartPage and DuckDuckGo, they seem entirely unmanageable.

- Firefox has a gallery of search engines I can install. I have already installed DuckDuckGo, so I cannot install it again to make it my default. https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/search-engines/ - I can open about:config and edit browser.search.selectedEngine to DuckDuckGo, but I'm not exactly sure how this works! (I'm assuming it pulls the DuckDuckGo search extension up.)

- I can mess around in the address bar all day without seeing an option to choose or change my search engine. - I cannot manage my installed search engines.

How do I change my search engines without hitting (my about:config) and hoping?

I'm running Firefox 32 right now, but noticed this problem in Aurora first: There is no place to manage search engines, and now that I've installed "engines" for StartPage and DuckDuckGo, they seem entirely unmanageable. - Firefox has a gallery of search engines I can install. I have already installed DuckDuckGo, so I cannot install it again to make it my default. https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/search-engines/ - I can open about:config and edit browser.search.selectedEngine to DuckDuckGo, but I'm not exactly sure how this works! (I'm assuming it pulls the DuckDuckGo search extension up.) - I can mess around in the address bar all day without seeing an option to choose or change my search engine. - I cannot manage my installed search engines. How do I change my search engines without hitting (my about:config) and hoping?

Chosen solution

Search engines are managed from the search bar: click the icon on the left to switch search engines, or click Manage Search Engines to remove engines or assign keywords.
Apart from the search bar, the currently selected engine will also be used when searching from the address bar, the default homepage (about:home), and New Tab page (about:newtab).

  1. If you've removed the search bar from the navigation toolbar, click the ≡ Menu Button, then choose Customize. Drag it from the palette onto the toolbar, then click the Exit Customize button.
  2. You can also bookmark the following URL and open it. The search engine manager will then open in a tab.
    • chrome://browser/content/search/engineManager.xul
  3. You may be interested in add-ons that merge the address bar with the search bar, like Foobar.

Feel free to vote for the report to keep track of any progress, but please don't post comments unless you have technical information to add. See the Bugzilla etiquette page for details.

  • Bug 335781 - Move search engine manager into Add-ons manager
Read this answer in context 👍 4

All Replies (1)

more options

Chosen Solution

Search engines are managed from the search bar: click the icon on the left to switch search engines, or click Manage Search Engines to remove engines or assign keywords.
Apart from the search bar, the currently selected engine will also be used when searching from the address bar, the default homepage (about:home), and New Tab page (about:newtab).

  1. If you've removed the search bar from the navigation toolbar, click the ≡ Menu Button, then choose Customize. Drag it from the palette onto the toolbar, then click the Exit Customize button.
  2. You can also bookmark the following URL and open it. The search engine manager will then open in a tab.
    • chrome://browser/content/search/engineManager.xul
  3. You may be interested in add-ons that merge the address bar with the search bar, like Foobar.

Feel free to vote for the report to keep track of any progress, but please don't post comments unless you have technical information to add. See the Bugzilla etiquette page for details.

  • Bug 335781 - Move search engine manager into Add-ons manager