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How do I add OpenSearch search engines?

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  • Last reply by Paul

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If I visit a website that supports OpenSearch, how do I add it as a search engine?

The article Use gestures in Firefox for Android says I can long tap on a Web Address to add a site as a search engine: however on Android 10 this only gives me the standard "Open", "Cut", "Copy", "Paste", "Share", and "Read aloud".

Manage my default search engines in Firefox for Android has a section on adding a search engine, but it is cumbersome (manually adding the URL and "%s" for the query string). Plus it then lacks useful features of the OpenSearch standard, e.g. displaying an icon.

If I visit a website that supports OpenSearch, how do I add it as a search engine? The article [[Use gestures in Firefox for Android]] says I can long tap on a Web Address to add a site as a search engine: however on Android 10 this only gives me the standard "Open", "Cut", "Copy", "Paste", "Share", and "Read aloud". [[Manage my default search engines in Firefox for Android]] has a section on adding a search engine, but it is cumbersome (manually adding the URL and "%s" for the query string). Plus it then lacks useful features of the OpenSearch standard, e.g. displaying an icon.

All Replies (5)

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Hi

What is the URL of the search engine you wish to add?

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Paul said

Hi What is the URL of the search engine you wish to add?

https://baresearch.org/ or https://opnxng.com/

Both are instances of SearXNG, and support OpenSearch. This works fine on Firefox for desktop, but the Android long tap option simply isn't there for me (in stable, Beta, or Nightly).

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Search engine add-ons

Change search settings icon. At the bottom of the Search panel, click on the Find more search engines link. The Firefox Add-ons website will open. Select the search engine add-on you want to install and click Add to Firefox.

Regards, Will

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willjoe24421 said

Search engine add-ons Change search settings icon. At the bottom of the Search panel, click on the Find more search engines link. The Firefox Add-ons website will open. Select the search engine add-on you want to install and click Add to Firefox. Regards, Will

Not helpful on Firefox for Android.

On older version of Firefox for Desktop, you could visit an OpenSearch-enabled site and add it to the search bar in the toolbar. This still works if you re-add the search bar, or you can find it at the bottom of the all-in-one address bar.

Pic related: desktop Firefox when visiting https://www.flickr.com/

Now there is a curated list of search engines by default, and 4,242 extensions in Search Tools for the desktop version of FIrefox. Firefox for Android, meanwhile, has 18 extensions total!

I've tried adding some of the desktop Search Tools extensions to a custom collection for Beta or Nightly, but they do not appear in the list. Same goes for using the Mycroft Project since the OpenSearch/long tap option does not work.

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Hi

This is something that our developers hope to look into in the future. You can follow progress on this and add comments at:

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1807740