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Firefox makes you jump through hoops too. To enable the UI for adding custom search engines you need to set the undocumented preference "browser.urlbar.update2.

by mrob 2y ago

Firefox makes you jump through hoops too. To enable the UI for adding custom search engines you need to set the undocumented preference "browser.urlbar.update2.engineAliasRefresh" to true.

init2null 2y ago
I meant changing it in Preferences though, and not a drop-down like it used to be. You can add completely new engines, change defaults, and even give them keywords for quick searches without any undocumented change.
kevin_thibedeau 2y ago
If I was a government party with subpoena power I'd be really interested in the email chain around that decision.
- yorwba 2y ago
  The code review comments indicate they had an in-person meeting: https://phabricator.services.mozilla.com/D86987 https://phabricator.services.mozilla.com/D86987 (My impression is that the feature is hidden behind a setting because it's half-baked and not yet ready to replace opensearchdescription xml, add-ons, and bookmark keywords as the official way to add search engines.)
- dylan604 2y ago
  If you were a government party with subpoena power, you'd think the internet was made of tubes. You'd have no idea how tech works, and only rubber stamp things tech companies provide you. Otherwise, you'd be over qualified and too focused on things other than raising money, kissing babies while stealing their lollipops.
  - atlasunshrugged 2y ago
    To be fair to some of my former colleagues in government, there are some folks who do know about tech in Congress and smattered across federal agencies and the White House. While politicians themselves may not know how the internet works, if they listen to their staffers (which many do on the actual technical part of a topic if not the political or other implications of an issue), they are probably at least somewhat informed. For those with tech knowledge who want to try to change things, I recommend checking out https://www.techcongress.io/ https://www.techcongress.io/, https://horizonpublicservice.org/ https://horizonpublicservice.org/ (they both have a cohort they're recruiting for right now) and USDS.
zufallsheld 2y ago
At least on mobile Firefox for Android, that's not true. It's there by default.
- Twirrim 2y ago
  You can change between ones that you have a search tools extension for, https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/extensions/category/search-tools/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/extensions/category..., but you can't just put your own custom search engine in. That said, keyword searches are awesome and I use them for a whole lot of things, including effectively custom search engines. I have keyword searches against, e.g., internal confluence docs so I only have to enter "con <thing I'm searching for>" and firefox will load the confluence search page, or "people <name>" to bring up our internal phonebook with a search for the employee. I don't think I've ever needed to add my own entirely custom search engine to the browser.
  - XMPPwocky 2y ago
    I have UI to enter a custom URL for search in Firefox for Android, with no extensions beyond Privacy Badger, Unhook, and uBlock Origin- interesting.
    - Twirrim 2y ago
      Double checked mine, same. How bizarre. Desktop doesn't have it by default but mobile does.
lcouturi 2y ago
This is not really true. The about:config flag you mentioned does add a button in the Settings page allowing the addition of custom search engines, but that's only because the intended method for adding search engines is different. The normal way doesn't require setting anything in about:config, but it might be a little hidden (still found it on my own though, so I dunno). The regular way is to visit the homepage for the search engine you want to add and click the URL bar. This will show the usual search drop-down with the "This time, search with:" row at the bottom. If you're on the homepage for a search engine which hasn't been added to Firefox, there will be an additional button on that row allowing you to add the site as a search engine, which will make it accessible from the regular settings page like every other search engine.
- stubish 2y ago
  I'm speechless. Such a fantastically discoverable UI, a tribute to Douglas Adams. How did I never find this?

by mrob 2y ago

Firefox makes you jump through hoops too. To enable the UI for adding custom search engines you need to set the undocumented preference "browser.urlbar.update2.engineAliasRefresh" to true.

init2null 2y ago

I meant changing it in Preferences though, and not a drop-down like it used to be. You can add completely new engines, change defaults, and even give them keywords for quick searches without any undocumented change.

kevin_thibedeau 2y ago

If I was a government party with subpoena power I'd be really interested in the email chain around that decision.

yorwba 2y ago
The code review comments indicate they had an in-person meeting: https://phabricator.services.mozilla.com/D86987 https://phabricator.services.mozilla.com/D86987 (My impression is that the feature is hidden behind a setting because it's half-baked and not yet ready to replace opensearchdescription xml, add-ons, and bookmark keywords as the official way to add search engines.)
dylan604 2y ago
If you were a government party with subpoena power, you'd think the internet was made of tubes. You'd have no idea how tech works, and only rubber stamp things tech companies provide you. Otherwise, you'd be over qualified and too focused on things other than raising money, kissing babies while stealing their lollipops.
- atlasunshrugged 2y ago
  To be fair to some of my former colleagues in government, there are some folks who do know about tech in Congress and smattered across federal agencies and the White House. While politicians themselves may not know how the internet works, if they listen to their staffers (which many do on the actual technical part of a topic if not the political or other implications of an issue), they are probably at least somewhat informed. For those with tech knowledge who want to try to change things, I recommend checking out https://www.techcongress.io/ https://www.techcongress.io/, https://horizonpublicservice.org/ https://horizonpublicservice.org/ (they both have a cohort they're recruiting for right now) and USDS.

zufallsheld 2y ago

At least on mobile Firefox for Android, that's not true. It's there by default.

Twirrim 2y ago
You can change between ones that you have a search tools extension for, https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/extensions/category/search-tools/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/extensions/category..., but you can't just put your own custom search engine in. That said, keyword searches are awesome and I use them for a whole lot of things, including effectively custom search engines. I have keyword searches against, e.g., internal confluence docs so I only have to enter "con <thing I'm searching for>" and firefox will load the confluence search page, or "people <name>" to bring up our internal phonebook with a search for the employee. I don't think I've ever needed to add my own entirely custom search engine to the browser.
- XMPPwocky 2y ago
  I have UI to enter a custom URL for search in Firefox for Android, with no extensions beyond Privacy Badger, Unhook, and uBlock Origin- interesting.
  - Twirrim 2y ago
    Double checked mine, same. How bizarre. Desktop doesn't have it by default but mobile does.

lcouturi 2y ago

This is not really true. The about:config flag you mentioned does add a button in the Settings page allowing the addition of custom search engines, but that's only because the intended method for adding search engines is different. The normal way doesn't require setting anything in about:config, but it might be a little hidden (still found it on my own though, so I dunno). The regular way is to visit the homepage for the search engine you want to add and click the URL bar. This will show the usual search drop-down with the "This time, search with:" row at the bottom. If you're on the homepage for a search engine which hasn't been added to Firefox, there will be an additional button on that row allowing you to add the site as a search engine, which will make it accessible from the regular settings page like every other search engine.

stubish 2y ago
I'm speechless. Such a fantastically discoverable UI, a tribute to Douglas Adams. How did I never find this?