Is one search engine safer than another?

Google search is safer than Bing

regards,

 

I am using WOT - I started the thread to help others with their choices.

best regards,

 

I use WOT sometimes. I don't know how much I can trust it however. Maxthon Flag or Flagfox can give you information from WOT & Site Advisor on Maxthon 4 & SeaMonkey (WOT can be run on SeaMonkey but can interfere with the GUI) respectively in my experience. Personally I would rather use a search engine like Duck Duck Go (DDG) or Start Page. I usually have DDG as my default search engine on SeaMonkey.

Google Tracks You. We don't. DDG

With Firefox you have to change it in about:config. It is fairly straightforward. Download the browser plug-in then type about:config into the address bar. When you get past the caveat about being careful, type browser.search.defaultenginename into the filter. Then click on the browser.search.defaultenginename string & replace the word Google with DuckDuckGo in the text box.

Changing the default search engine is much easier in SeaMonkey & Chrome!

 

If you're talking about changing the search engine, there's an easier way.

Download and install the Toolbar Buttons extension. Then, right-click anywhere on the toolbar (except in the address or search bars) and select Customize from the context menu to open the Customize Toolbar window. Locate the Search icon, drag it to the search bar, and close the Customize Toolbar window. Now you can manage your choice of search engines just by clicking on the little icon at the left end of the search bar.

Enjoy some of the other shortcut icons, too.

 

I read about this elsewhere, Google is a much safer search engine than others are. Like others in this thread, I use WOT as well, on both Firefox & Chrome.

However, this isn't a steadfast rule as far as the search engine goes, what's being searched also comes into play. Searching for illegal software & ****, no matter the search engine or even browser, can easily place malware onto the user's computer if not adequately protected by a live AV/Malware app.

Cat

 

Another Chrome extention in my case as I use Chrome as my default browser is Ghost.com. The link is self explanatory but I find it a great help surfing, however safe surfing is the rule of thumb with any browser in my opinion.

Best regards,

 

I just meant as the default search engine, not the ones in the small search bar, either way you'd still need the plug-ins. It's set to Google in Fx by default (including the engine runbar on the Firefox homepage). Ironically it is easy to change your default engine in Google Chrome itself. SeaMonkey is the same. But I suspect that Mozilla, who have a deal with Google, don't want to make changing the default to anything else easy on Firefox. Anyway, it only takes a minute or so to do it in about:config.

With my way you can type straight into the run bar with the default search engine of your choice. I wouldn't necessarily call your way 'easier'.

 

Do you have any evidence Google is any safer than Yahoo!, Bing or any other engine? At least with Duck Duck Go & Start Page/Ixquick you are not bubble tracked nor is your IP address logged.

 

I don't know that the plug-ins are actually necessary, Dave. I'm running both FF 20.0.1 and Pale Moon 20.0.1 (64-bit version of FF), and neither one has a browser plug-in installed, yet I have DuckDuckGo set as the default search engine in both.

With the Toolbar Buttons extension installed, I can switch search engines quickly and easily with just a couple of mouse clicks, and not have to do any typing (other than to enter what I'm searching for). I can also add or delete search engines just as easily. To paraphrase what "the man" says, "There's more than one way to skin a (fire)fox ".

 

I would have thought you would have needed this DDG plug-in at least.

Maybe we are talking at cross-purposes here. I can have several search engines In the smaller search drop-down menu. In fact I have an extensions so I can search from a highlighted word in any search engine, including IMDb, Wikipedia, or specific dictionaries & the like. But I just want DDG as the overall default from the runbar (or Firefox start page) itself. AFAIK the only way to change this from Google is to change it in about:config.

 

Dave ...

The link you provided in your last message opens a DuckDuckGo page with an "Add to Firefox" button which, when clicked, displays a message telling me that I need a Mozilla-based browser to install a search plug-in . If I right-click and select "Save Link As ", it saves a file called duckduckgo_ssl-20120317.xml, which FF will not install as either an extension or a plug-in. I don't know why it even exists.

In his "About this Add-on" section further down the page, the author provides a link to the DuckDuckGo Plus page, which is the extension that really should be installed.

On both pages the author states that "This add-on will add DuckDuckGo as your default search engine in the search bar," (the operative words being "in the search bar ") which appears not to be true ... I selected Google, uninstalled DDG Plus, closed and re-opened FF, and re-installed DDG Plus; Google remained the selected search engine.

As you said, the default search engine can be changed in about:config, but I don't find that to be necessary. Clicking on the search icon at the left end of the search bar opens a menu from which you can choose your desired search engine (shown in bold, see screenshot). Note that while Google is the default search engine, DDG is the selected one, and it will remain the de facto default search engine until a new one is selected, even though the default has not been changed in about:config.

And, as I mentioned earlier, I have no search plug-ins installed. About{:}plug-ins (sorry 'bout the brackets ... if typed properly, it's displayed as aboutlugins) shows the same four plug-ins that the Add-ons Manager does (screenshot).

I can do that without a dedicated extension ... I think it must be built into FF.

 

Sorry about that, it could be a bug. I thought that was the DDG plug-in that I used originally.

I didn't have any of these problems, thankfully.

Yes, Google is the default. It is the default if you type a search query straight into the run/address bar or the search bar on the Fx homepage. It actually says 'Google' to the left of the box on the homepage. This 'Google' logo disappears when you change the default in about:config.

Until you close the browser. On restarting Firefox Google will be the default engine again unless you change it in about:config.

Maybe it is now. I am just so used to changing it from Google to DDG my way.

Of course, this is so much easier in SeaMonkey.

 

It also disappears when you select a different search engine from the drop-down menu.

I beg to differ ... whatever search engine has been selected from the drop-down menu will remain the designated (that's what I meant by de facto default) search engine no matter how many times FF is closed and opened, and no matter what search engine is listed as the default in about:config.

Google remains the default search engine in my about:config, but DDG is the selected/designated search engine, and will remain so until I change it, with no intervention from me.

I don't understand why anyone chooses to use the suite if the only components they use are the browser and the email client. To each his own, I suppose.

 

Does that include the search bar on the homepage? If it does, it's news to me. I'd rather have DDG as my default search anyway. Why be tracked by the Google Borg all the time?

There are reasons that it is still an entire suite. I believe it is difficult to remove certain processes easily. Personally I prefer it to Fx. Having said that, I prefer Maxthon 4 to the both of them.

De gustibus non est disputandum

 

I don't use a "homepage" per se, choosing, instead, to open FF with a blank page. The closest I can come to answering your question, I believe, is to open FF in Safe Mode. After doing so I selected DDG from the drop-down menu and closed FF. When I reopened it in Safe Mode, DDG remained as the selected search engine, so I would have to say that the answer is "Yes ".

I understand the reasons, but I still think that most SeaMonkey users use only the browser and the email client.

I've used Maxthon in the past but, for my money, it's still just a gussied up IE.

Verus, verus.

 

Could be. I do know that some Fx versions have different default search engines.

Very probably. The RSS feed is useful as well. Many still use the composer. I mainly use the browser.

It's changed a bit since the Gecko days. I just use the WebKit mode. It's got a lot of features 'out of the box' & I use the portable a lot. It would help more if I knew what the phrasal verb 'gussied up' means (I'm English lol). Maxthon looks more like Chrome now than anything else. Mind you, so does Firefox these days.

 

From urbandictionary.com:

Something gussied up has been made more attractive, but in a showy or gimmicky way, so it’s often not intended to be a compliment [I didn't mean it in that sense]. It can also refer to dressing in one’s finery for some special occasion, when it is intended to be taken more straightforwardly. It is usually considered to be an American expression, dating from the late 1930s or thereabouts.
​

Not MY Firefox!

 

OK, thanks for the explanation. I like your Firefox. It reminds me of when I used K-Meleon & had the PrefBar enabled & dragged up on the menu bar. I may even have a screenshot somewhere (found it!).

Maxthon looks quite clean but a bit flat nowadays. Hopefully they will code more skins for Mx 4 soon. The chess wallpaper is my own customisation, I found it somewhere online.