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DuckDuckGo for the win!

This has nothing to do with what search engine you're using. It collects data about what you type in the search/URL bar.

I guess it's time to stop searching from the url bar (sorry, "awesomebar") and create a local html file as the startup and new tab page, with search boxes for all your fav engines. Just like the good old days.

You could even paste all your bookmarks into that page!

I did that for years, then it became difficult as browsers didn't want to let you set a local file as your default home page (for "security reasons").

I now just have "Blank Page" set for my Homepage, new windows, and new tabs.

I just tried setting a local file in Firefox and it seems to work again, so I may go back to that.

about:blank is the new tab nothing else loads faster!

I was able to set a local file for new windows, but it looks like there's no built-in way to set a custom URL for new pages, not even in about:config (v125.0.3, Fedora). :/

I may have to simply use the URL bar with data collection opted-out, as I'd rather not bother with vetting and installing a custom open source extension to override the new tab behavior.

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