Hello

A similar question https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1574867

Try

https://noai.duckduckgo.com/search?q=%s

In other words, you can. It is not an issue with the browser (the instructions are in the error message), it indeed is a question after all… were it worded as one.

This shows the steps: Add custom search engines in Firefox — including a chapter "Why does the URL need to contain %s?" on the exact topic you might be interested in.

In other words, you can. It is not an issue with the browser (the instructions are in the error message), it indeed is a question after all… were it worded as one.

There is no search term in that URL--the error message, as worded, suggests replacing something that does not exist with %s. I think that's pretty clearly an issue with the error message being displayed, if nothing else.

To complement, for illustration https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isdGWC9netY

These interfaces are similarly unfortunate on multiple platforms — expecting tribal knowledge in the provider formats and placeholders. Unless you know what you're doing, the best path is usually via the context menu on the search results site, that should offer you adding the same search just preconfigured for you.

Does the support article sound helpful from that point of view? Do you think if the error message contained a link to the knowledge base, it would improve the success rate of adding the custom provider?

I ended up visiting the DuckDuckGo No AI page and installing a Firefox extension that handles this for me.

Firefox clearly already checks for a %s in the string entered; to the extent practicable, I think Firefox should maintain a list of known additional search engine URLs and simply insert the necessary appendage itself. Forcing users to read an article should be an absolute last resort, as 99% of users will absolutely not bother.

A space for users to give product feedback https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/what-mozilla-connect