Mac Spotlight search wrongly uses Google, I've chosen DuckDuckGo
I've chosen DuckDuckGo as my default engine in FF. If I begin a new search in FF, my search correctly uses DDG. But, if I use macOS's Spotlight to initiate a search, it correctly opens my default browser, FF, then searches with Google. Here are some background details.
1. Open Spotlight and type a search term (e.g. 'KITTENS') 2. Force *web* (rather than local search) in Spotlight field: command+B 3. Default browser (Firefox) correctly opens. 4. Firefox correctly places search expression in Firefox's search field; e.g. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=kittens&t=ffnt&atb=v113-2&ia=web 5. About a second later, the DDG search term is replaced by a Google search; e.g. https://www.google.com/search?rls=en_GB&q=kittens&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
Notes: 1. This happens on the three macs that I use. 2. It does not happen if I have Safari as my default browser (Spotlight correctly opens a DDG search on Safari). 3. I don't have Google even listed as a possible browser in Firefox. 4. I looked in some Firefox forums and couldn't find any similar comments. 5. I've spent time browsing for others with the same problem but haven't seen anything coming up. Maybe just me or maybe I'm unusual in browsing from Spotlight. 6. I do not have Google as a non-default browser in FF (i.e., it's nothing obviously like it's tripping up on DDG and picking Google as my next choice - Google's not on the list). 7. The Troubleshooting Information field below mentions ' "keyGoogleFound": true,' Does this mean that Google is somehow 'baked in' to FF and this is the source of the problem?
Thanks very much :-)
Toutes les réponses (4)
I can reproduce this with not a problem.
I type in 'kittens' and then hit command + B while highlited in spotlight and it will open up in a google search, not in a duckduckgo search.
I am not entirely sure how spotlight chooses the search engine, but I do know that when I tested it, Firefox was the default browser.
Could it have something to do with the key shortcuts built into Mac OSX?
I looked around and I did find that I could add a custom keyboard text to shorten duckduckgo.com with "ddg". This might not be a shortcut, but it does let you use on step to open duckduckgo.com in a new firefox window.
Maybe the next steps here are to file a new bug in bugzilla.mozilla.org with the steps to reproduce, while we search for a work around in the meantime. What do you think?
I did also find this feature to turn on the google search feature all together, so maybe there is a way to customize it, I will keep looking.
I found it!
Try these steps: https://www.intego.com/mac-security-blog/how-to-switch-search-engines-mac-osx-ios/
Thanks Guigs but I couldn't get any further with any of your suggestions. The mystery continues!
1. In your first post did you mean that you also had this "Spotlight > ⌘B > FF > DDG > Google" problem? If it's just me - that's still helpful to know about!
2. My System Preferences > Keyboard > Services is set up to DDG, not to Google so it's not that one.
3. This might be important. The screenshot for for the FF Preferences pane looks totally different to the one in your web link. I've attached a screenshot of mine, which looks more like a web based than a desktop client Preferences panel. My FF is 64.0.2 and is called FF 'Quantum', which I had not noticed before. I will check to see if I've got some kind of non-standard install afterwards.
=
Here is some more guessing and speculation that doesn't really go anywhere useful!...
I have been setting up Thunderbird's mail client too and I know that they have a common history so maybe this is a connection...? By default, Thunderbird does not list DDG as a browser, but you can add it by:
1. Menu > Tools > Developer Tools > Error Console (or ⇧ ⌘ J, on macOS)
2. Paste this into the Error Console (the input field is right at the bottom below the activity log stuff) Services.search.addEngine("https://duckduckgo.com/opensearch.xml", null, "", {});
3. Go back into Thunderbolt Preferences > Default Search Engine and DDG had appeared.
[SOURCE https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1105490]
But DDG is already in FF's search engine list, it just seems to be overridden - but only when starting from a Spotlight search [?!] - but I looked to see if there was some parallel. I could find a Web Console and a Developer Console but no way of pasting this text in. Of course, it's more likely that I would have needed to REMOVE something like the FF equivalent of this
Services.search.addEngine("https://google.com/opensearch.xml", null, "", {});
Cheers!
