Use custom default search engine in (Mobile) Safari (address bar)?

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1

This week I started experimenting with SearXNG and now I want to set it up as my default search engine in (Mobile) Safari on macOS/iOS/iPadOS, but it seems Apple only allows a very limited set of preconfigured engines and there’s no (easy?) way to change this?

How can I set up a custom default search engine to use in the (Mobile) Safari address bar?

Note: I don’t want to install an extension that allows searing in a specific search entry by prefixing my input with a keyword; I want to only type my search term and let Safari search that in my configured search engine.

2

You can use xSearch to achieve this result.

In the settings there is an option to override the default search engine set in Safari. You just search as normal and it will take you to your default search engine without adding any prefix.

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Set your your chosen search engine as normal in xSearch with a prefix and make sure it works as expected. Then go into the settings within xSearch and toggle on the override option.

Hope this helps,
Darran

3

I saw that yesterday, but the screenshot mentions a prefix (the thing I don’t want).

Do you use it yourself and can you confirm no prefix (special word or character) is needed to use the custom engine?

4

I use it myself and it does work without the prefix. You set it up with a prefix l, but once you toggle on the override option with your desired search engine becomes the default. There is. I linger any need to use the prefix for your default choice. That option is still there so that you can pick one of the other options you have setup.

For example, if I want to use my default choice (Whoogle) I just type into the address bar in Safari. If I want to search directly in Wikipedia I can type ‘wiki’ followed by my search term and it will bypass my default option and search Wikipedia directly. That is what the prefix option allows you to do. If you just want to use your default choice then type into the address bar.

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The same extension also works in the macOS version of Safari and provides the same functionality as iOS and iPadOS.

Darran

2 Likes
5

That’s great!

Do you need to allow the extension to read and alter websites you visit and see
your browsing history?

EDIT: seems like it needs it? :cry:

Since iOS 17 the app changed permission requirements and now it must have full access to browsing history.

(that kind of beats the reason I want to use SearXNG; to increase privacy)

6

If that bothers you, the only other option I can think of in Safari is to just add the alternative search engine’s homepage to favorites, which I’ve done with Startpage and Mojeek. The only disadvantage is one extra tap.

Or you can use an alternative iOS browser that enables you to use a wider range of search engines than Safari allows.

7

I tried a similar (free and open source) extension:

Unfortunately that worked by leaking queries to one of the predefined search engines and only then hijacking / redirecting the query to SearXNG.

I’m afraid they’ll all work like this?