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Comment by DennisP | Hacker News Reader

Having the extension and letting people try it on the web seems like a more reasonable choice. People need to try it out.

That said...there is a search textbox at the top of the page and it worked for me in Firefox and Chrome. Did people just miss it? If so, it should probably be in the middle with the big blue button.

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For me, the textbox at the top of the page was disabled and said "Install the extension to search" in Chrome.

Edit: I refreshed and it wasn't disabled, but when I searched I got a "install the extension to view your results" page.

it takes 5 seconds to install and uninstall an extension. we will open source it also so people can see how simple and benign it is. It feels like 5s to help move the internet away from a privacy invading monopoly isn't too bad?

If you like privacy and agency of your information diet, or saving lots of time while coding, or Reddit results always accessible to browse for most queries, etc.

Then the 5s install will be worth it for you :)

PS: You can try in incognito mode (though some apps wont work due to hardcore privacy and no location sharing, etc.)

Please don't be like that. We don't want to install an extension. If your focus is privacy, please understand where we come from on this.

I understand it better now that the worry is also about the future of the extension. The requirement is gone. Thanks for your feedback :)

I already have privacy from Startpage and DuckDuckGo. What I don't have is personal knowledge of whether your search engine is any damn good. Until I find out, I'm not likely to install your extension.

(And fwiw, I use Startpage every day without needing an extension for it.)

Maybe a compromise would be keeping the button to install the extension but add a link along the lines of "Don't want an extension?" that explains how you can use it without installing the extension and your reasons for the extension.

Thanks. THat's helpful feedback. We just added that below the extension button:

Don't like extensions? Click here to make it your default manually instead.

Why would I set a search engine as default of which I have no idea if it is any good?

Forcing users to install some random extension to use a privacy search engine is probably the worst value prop you can offer. What is the subset of privacy seeking users are part of the group of users willing to install random extensions exist?

I get how useful it is for growth but a defensive answer like this does more PR harm than good. also misses the question.

i have tried your search engine and it is great. i can tell a lot of work has gone into it, but i had to think twice about giving it a second go after being put off by your first impression.

Thanks for trying. You are right. It will take some time to earn that trust. We dropped the requirement.

I think you are kind of missing the point. Regardless of the reasons, people do not want to install an extension from an unknown provider to test out a search engine (at least on HN), you’ll even get a very hostile response.

If you aim to make your search engine a success, regardless of your reasons for that. You’ll have to deal with that problem. Trying to convince people with some idealistic talk does not seem to be working from what I can see in this thread (and anyway, is not scalable).

Alternatively, you can try launching somewhere else, but I imagine the reception on Reddit will be just as hostile.

It did not go well on Reddit either

https://www.reddit.com/r/assholedesign/comments/qqc210/to_us...

It takes less than 5 seconds to upload personal data to a server from a compromised extension.

Not saying you're doing this but it was the first threat scenario that came to mind and it's not even something particularly uncommon in the browser extension world.

I'm going to go ahead and say it then, this is suspicious as fuck.

It would have been slightly less suspicious if the response to "this is a security concern" would have been "oops yeah we see that now, let's disable that requirement until we gain some trust first".

I do not trust a company that brands itself as privacy-oriented when they insist on peddling a security vulnerability to their users "because Google is evil so trust us". Google may be selling my data but at least they have a lot to lose so they are likely to abide by legal guardrails.

Especially since there is no value-add to the extension. It's whole purpose is to make it harder for less tech-savvy users to stop using the service.

You've got this super expensive domain for a new project, it's normal for tech people to be wary.

Please could you quit thinking we're idiots with that 33kb bit you're doing? We get it, it's fine and safe and beautiful. Right now. We live in 4 dimensions though bud. We don't just care what it does now, we care what it'll be doing next year too!

From my point of view this extension doesn't need to be installed. Therefore I assume it will almost certainly update and fuck me over one day, you will need to monetise eventually and this feels like it's being defended super heavily for no reason

What's the plan here? It's only 5s now sure, how much time is it going to cost when the plot reveals itself?

Your onboarding is too intense mate. HN has fallen out of your funnel because of this extension. It's too weird of a scenario to the point I actually trust you less having read your responses! Where there's smoke there's fire and this extension is giving off all sorts of funky smells

Also someone needs to mention it - I don't want to change my search engine right now. Just be a search engine, quit being so needy! It took like 5 years for me to switch from Google to DDG lmao, you don't get first dibs on my search data like this. Ease into it

E: also I'm using Firefox anyway haha

That is incredibly dismissive of legitimate feedback, and you should honestly be ashamed of your response. I personally find your attitude in these comments to be absolutely reprehensible, and will never use this site -- or anything you're involved with.

You're apparently not even aware that every browser has the ability to add a keyword to the search engines, so that users could type "you: search phrase" and it goes to your site. Being oblivious to this is a huge red flag, and betrays that you really haven't thought this through.

You ever hear the saying "The customer is always right?". Seems like you are insisting on learning that lesson the hard way.

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