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Comment by chvid | Hacker News Reader

Is the interface between browser and search engine not explicitly defined? Why can't I add an arbitrary web application as a search engine for chrome?

(I know ... for business reasons ... but isn't Chrome open source? How is this in practice prevented?)

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You can. In fact, Chrome automatically creates search engines for any site you search on. I can search Amazon by typing "Am<tab><query><enter>" in the address bar for example, and Chrome learned how to do that automatically despite not having any knowledge of how Amazon's search system works when I first installed it.

I guess the only difference is that with this change, DDG is available as a search engine by default with a blank install, even before you've actually used it.

Chrome uses open search for the amazon search. It's not some chrome magic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenSearch

Well, the automatically picking it up thing arguably is some Chrome magic.

You can add an arbitrary web application as a search engine for Chrome, just like in any other modern web browser.

You go to Settings > Manage search engines > Add or pick one of the auto discovered ones. This also works in the mobile versions of Chrome.

You can find more instructions here: https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95426

Today I learned something new. It is actually pretty cool.

Fwiw: this has always been the case, since Chrome 1.0.

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