This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Make custom search engine the default one

more options

I added several custom search engines to Firefox on Linux by right-clicking their search bar and clicking "Add a Keyword for this search". Now I want to set one of them as my default search engine. However, despite the custom ones are working flawlessly with a keyword, I can't find them in the Firefox settings. I know that there are Plugins for several search engines available, and it is even possible to create an own one, but I don't want to install a plugin just for a search engine I already have. Any suggestions?

I added several custom search engines to Firefox on Linux by right-clicking their search bar and clicking "Add a Keyword for this search". Now I want to set one of them as my default search engine. However, despite the custom ones are working flawlessly with a keyword, I can't find them in the Firefox settings. I know that there are Plugins for several search engines available, and it is even possible to create an own one, but I don't want to install a plugin just for a search engine I already have. Any suggestions?

Asịsa ahọpụtara

Hi userL, when you create a search keyword, it is attached to a bookmark, which is stored separately from the OpenSearch plugins (and equivalent extensions) listed on the Preferences page, Search panel.

I'm not aware of any way to use a bookmark as a default search engine, I'm pretty sure you will always need to use the keyword defined for the bookmark to send searches through the URL of that bookmark.

Gụọ azịza a na nghọta 👍 0

All Replies (2)

more options

Asịsa Ahọpụtara

Hi userL, when you create a search keyword, it is attached to a bookmark, which is stored separately from the OpenSearch plugins (and equivalent extensions) listed on the Preferences page, Search panel.

I'm not aware of any way to use a bookmark as a default search engine, I'm pretty sure you will always need to use the keyword defined for the bookmark to send searches through the URL of that bookmark.

more options

Hello, I am not which version of Firefox changed this, but it is now possible to do it. Here is a step by step guide:

1) Visit the search engine you want to add e.g. searx.info 2) Notice the green plus sign in the search bar next to the address bar 3) Click on it to expand 4) You can see all your search engine options and below you can see the "add XXX" with the green plus (XXX should be searx in our example).

Now, your new search engine is added to firefox and can be set as default in the search preferences.