When you type in a word or phrase in the Firefox location bar you are either taken to Google’s search result page for the search term or, if the term has an authority website, to a website that is the authority for that search term. While most users might like the idea that Google is the default search engine and have nothing to object about that fact some would probably like to change the default search engine in Firefox to another one.
The major difficulty is to find the correct url of the new search engine to replace the Google url. But let me first explain where you can change the search url in Firefox. You need to type about:config in the address bar of Firefox and filter for the phrase keyword.URL. This parameter contains the search url that will be used when typing in a word or phrases in the location bar.
You can’t just add the url that you would enter to visit the search engine there, e.g. yahoo.com or wikipedia.com because the search – normally – uses special parameters. The best way to discover the correct url would be to perform a search at your search engine of choice and copy / paste that url after modifying it a bit. If you search at Yahoo you discover lots of irrelevant option parameters that do not need to be added.
The Yahoo url that could be added would be http://search.yahoo.com/search?p= for instance or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ for Wikipedia. It’s all about a little trial and error but I think it’s well worth the effort.
Update: You can also check out the Mycroft Project which offers a big list of different search providers. The list includes popular providers like Facebook, YouTube, Google, Bing or Wikipedia plus a lot of lesser known search providers that may be more specialize than the ones mentioned.
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Anyone know how to change it to Scroogle?
Hey I actually did a short video tutorial on something quite like this, but it involved incorporating the search bar into the address bar to save space -> http://youtube.com/watch?v=RXGpBYjnFkE
OR!!!!! Just go and download the GROOWE Toolbar and pop your search word into the Default Search area (NO, not the Location Bar)and Search on 7 Search Engines at once!!!
http://www.groowe.com/
What search engines you ask?!! You can select from at least 16 of your choice….
OR
add more Toolbars at Groowe’s bequest Yes, they list 71 Toolbars you can download and install at a flick of your mouse.
No, I don’t work for these folks, i just like the base Toolbar!
TBIRD7777
for secure, no record searches —> Scroogle
in firefox,
1. goto about:config —>
2. search keyword.URL —->
3. change to = http://ssl.scroogle.org/cgi-bin/nbbw.cgi?Gw=s
4. ?????
5. CAKE
@anonymous:
thx, but the url doesn’t match.
use these:
1. goto about:config —>
2. search keyword.URL —->
3. change to = http://ssl.scroogle.org/cgi-bin/nbbw.cgi?Gw=
4. ?????
5. CAKE
now, it’s working.
thanks, my used computer had been using yahoo search, which i dislike
Great info from all you guys. Thanks.
Thanks for the Info!
But I have a question? What if you have a special search engine that has more text behind the search text? What do you do then?
Just what I needed – Orange (UK mobile prov) had somehow configured FF to use their search page, which had annoyed me for months … Thanks
some software change this settings .. so can u give me default google link to add there ? i love it when i type ” google analytic ” and the site load directly .. wch not working now ..
YEAH!
google.com-config=?Kamma Gumma
http://www.google.com/search?q=
thanks, this was really helpful
Good article I was searching for to change my Firefox search engine.
Thanks