Browser-laptop: Duckduckgo as default search engine (instead of google)

[LoveIsGrief]

• Did you search for similar issues before submitting this one?

Found #295, but that's just for giving the possibility to change the default search engine after installation.

• Describe the issue you encountered:

Google is the default search engine

• Platform (Win7, 8, 10? macOS? Linux distro?):

Kubuntu 16.04

• Brave Version (revision SHA):

fba98fc

• Steps to reproduce:

  1. Download Brave
  2. Open brave
  3. Type search text into URL bar and hit enter

• Actual result:

Google search results

• Expected result:

Duckduckgo search results

• Will the steps above reproduce in a fresh profile? If not what other info can be added?

Yes

• Is this an issue in the currently released version?

Yes

• Can this issue be consistently reproduced?

Yes

Why

Isn't brave about privacy and letting in the right ads ? If not, then this issue can be safely ignored. Otherwise, I'd argue that duckduckgo protects (or at least claims to) our privacy more than google does.

[crysman]

I believe this is related to this request:
https://github.com/brave/browser-laptop/issues/3053
which, once implemented, solves this, too

[luixxiul]

I agree with @crysman. Still, we could add another section to about:welcome (which will be added in the next version) that you could change your default search engine on about:preferences#search.

[Jacalz]

+1 on creating a search engine selection in the welcome screen and also making DuckDuckGo default 👍 🦁+🦆

[luixxiul]

CC @cezaraugusto and @bradleyrichter for thoughts

[cezaraugusto]

+1 from me. @bradleyrichter wdyt?

[cndouglas]

+1 for search engine selection on welcome screen, with DuckDuckGo selected by default.

[eljuno]

+1 from community https://community.brave.com/t/make-default-search-engine-one-that-respects-your-privacy/5465/

and +1 from me. :smile:

[doc-E-brown]

Changed my mind: startpage instead ;)

[eljuno]

+1 from community https://community.brave.com/t/isnt-brave-meant-to-be-more-private-if-so-why-use-google-as-the-default-search-engine/11157?u=eljuno

[armaccloud]

Yes, duckduckgo as the default!
+1

[bradleyrichter]

DDG is great and we hope to have a tighter integration in the future.

We will be doing a v2 redesign on the welcome page and will absolutely add a search engine default section. This is a great place to present it to the new user.

[fermulator]

Agreed (+1); new user making the switch, first time walking through the configurations/preferences on a Linux system - was jaw-dropping to see Google as the default.

What is the ETA/plan?

@bradleyrichter noted above there is maybe a roadmap to present the user to choose it on welcome screen? - that's great and all ... first time open presenting the user with a choice!

_however_, I still think this request is still applicable in that the _default default_ should be DuckDuckGo.

[KidPluto]

was jaw-dropping to see Google as the default.

Exactly my reaction.

[arsalankhalid]

It seems like this issue should be closed since this now a useable feature as seen with:

Can we close this? @bradleyrichter

[cndouglas]

@arsalankhalid No, Google is still the default search engine when Brave is first installed.

[KidPluto]

Wow. Over a year later and Google is still the default browser. This shows a massive disconnect between the stated goals of this project, and the people working on it.

[LoveIsGrief]

@arsalankhalid I disagree. Google is still the default after installing the browser. Sure, changing it is easy, but that's not the target of this issue.

[LoveIsGrief]

The relevant line should be https://github.com/brave/browser-laptop/blob/0640d1e879c9848d52f263ba69e46cb0ac653e0b/js/constants/appConfig.js#L153

And the text should be https://github.com/brave/browser-laptop/blob/273749d212f996e400c6b543a46200bd647c854e/js/data/searchProviders.js#L37

Seems easy enough. I'll see if that does it, locally.

[bsclifton]

DuckDuckGo is a great search engine (my personal favorite 😄) but at this time we aren't prepared to enable this for all users. Talking with other team members, I believe most users are expecting Google results by default. Changing the preference is easy of course and we have a really nice private tab DuckDuckGo integration

We may very well address this in the future, but for now (April 2018), I'm going to close as wontfix. Apologies for any disappointment

[cndouglas]

Just a reminder that #13651 covers the ability to select the default search engine on the welcome screen, which would be an alternative solution to this feature request.

[LoveIsGrief]

I'm not sure what to say. The home page has messages like: "Protect your privacy" and "Privacy by default", which seem to convey that this browser is privacy focused. However a concession of this kind is made.

It leads me to wonder what other kind of concessions have been made and why.

Anyway, thanks for the definitive response.