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Comment by Matt_Cutts | Hacker News Reader

From the article:

"In an interview on Wednesday, [Gabriel] Weinberg said it is difficult to make his DuckDuckGo the default search site in Google's Chrome web browser, and that Google disadvantages his company in the Android mobile operating system as well. ....

"It's one-click to get onto Firefox and it's five steps on Chrome and people generally fail," he said.

The Google spokeswoman said popular search alternatives were offered on its Chrome browser in a dropdown menu, such as Yahoo and Microsoft's Bing, but any search engine could be easily added."

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Wait, 'one-click'?

In Firefox if I click the dropdown on the search field, then click 'Manage Search Engines' I get a dialog in which can be found a link to 'Get more search engines...'.

Clicking that opens an add-ons store tab with the 'Search Tools' filter applied, none of whose above-the-fold suggestions has anything to do with DDG. That's not one-click, it's a runaround.

In contrast, Chrome automatically adds search engines as you browse the web and lets you set any one of them as the default. It also has clearly labelled fields to let you create your own by copying the format of the ones listed. Getting to there takes 3 clicks and a scroll.

Two reasonable gripes: the existence of the free-edit fields is not immediately obvious upon clicking 'Manage search engines...' and neither is the fact that the domain name in the second column is an editable keyword.

Click-and-hold on the firefox search engine icon in the search field, and a list of engines appears. I clearly see "Add DuckDuckGo" as an option in that list while I am on the site, and you can slide the mouse over to that option and release. So yes, one click.

Thanks, now I get it. Having a UI cue when you're on the DDG website is a good idea.

I don't think this is available in Firefox for OS X, there's 2 icons in the search field and neither one responds to click-and-hold

Just click on the Google "G" (or whatever you have as your default search engine) when you are at the site and "Add DuckDuckGo" shows up as an option.

I am not supporting DuckDuckgo's claim, but the procees is indeed less painful if you just install their extension,

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/duckduckgo-fo...

I don't know why no such addon exists for Chrome?

EDIT: Ugh I am woefully wrong, the Chrome extension only shows up when you visit the site from Chrome. Perhaps they mean choosing a default search engine in Chrome is not as straightforward as Firefox. You will have to open preferences -> Search -> Manage Search engines and then change the default engine.

> I don't know why no such addon exists for Chrome?

Because someone has to be arsed to write it?

I suspect that part of it is a confluence of events: it's not exactly easy to change the search to DDG, most Chrome users don't bother to change it, and no one who is capable really wants to write an extension for Chrome to make it easier.

Which is, to my mind, a far simpler explanation than a conspiracy against DDG (in that one area).

To see the difference go to my search engine

http://www.verticalset.com/search

On Firefox, by clicking "Add to Browser" and checking "Start using Right Away", you can make it default.

On Chrome, if you click on same button there is no way to make it default. You have to find the list of search engines in settings and click "Make Default".

On IE, process is similar to Firefox.

It wouldn't be hard to make this similar to Firefox on Chrome, just add "Make it Default" check-box when adding new search engine, but that won't happen anytime soon.

No offense, but I don't what a website to be able to add themselves (or anyone else) to my browser settings with a javascript call. While it may not be a strict security issue, you could imagine an unscrupulous person registering a very similarly sounding name (b1ng.com, or something unicode-y) that could cause confusion. This is especially true when talking about changing your default search engine.

If you really want to tell people how to add your site as their default, then detect Chrome users and tell them how to do it in Chrome. There is no need to blame Google for this - they aren't treating you differently than anyone else, aside from Bing and Yahoo (who are added to the default list).

While I appreciate that other sites are doing this by default without user interaction, this is just ripe for a phishing attack. So, I would assume this will go away soon.

I'm curious, how many clicks is it to replace Bing as the default in IE?

Isn't it impossible for DDG to become the default in Safari?

Not saying they're wrong to point it out, but rather that they should be consistent in pointing fingers if they do.

I couldn't agree more. It is a pain to set Google as default search provider in IE.

Fired up IE9 to take a look.

One click on the search icon in the address bar and Bing and Ask.com (really?) are listed as two default search providers.

There is an Add button which takes me to an Internet Explorer Add-On page. DDG and Google are highlighted as popular options. Click on the "tile" and another click to install.

So 4 clicks for IE9.

It's 4 clicks in Chrome (Menu - Settings - Settings - Manage Search Providers, to get to the "Manage Search Engines" screen but DDG is nowhere to be found. YOu have to manually add it and it isn't very clear how to do it because the textbox is truncated for the actual url.

but DDG is nowhere to be found. YOu have to manually add it and it isn't very clear how to do it because the textbox is truncated for the actual url.

Unless you visit duckduckgo.com once, at which point it's added to the list of "other search engines" on that page. Which seems like a totally reasonable way to manage that list, since otherwise Google is responsible for pre-populating and maintaining a comprehensive list of all other search engines out there.

(This behavior was tested on Chrome 24, and I verified it by deleting the record for DuckDuckGo from my "other search engine" list, then visiting duckduckgo.com and reloading the list.)

DDG was in my list. Apparently it picks up options as you browse?

There's a DDG extension available for Safari, which will make DDG the default search provider.

https://extensions.apple.com/#search-extensions (it takes just one click to install and activate)

That adds a silly pop up button in the menu bar, and doesn't integrate with the unified search/url bar.

I'm using SafariKeywordSearch http://safarikeywordsearch.aurlien.net which means when I type "d ip address" it uses duckduckgo instead of Google.

You should probably try it again. It does indeed set DuckDuckGo as a search engine for the address bar when installed. The pop up button can be removed.

I counted three clicks on Chrome:

1. Right-click on search bar when on duckduckgo.com 2. Click edit search engines 3. Next to DuckDuckGo (it's autodetected the first time you visit the site), click 'make default'.

It's more clicks than firefox if you do it via the extension, but google's stance on blocking third-party extensions by default makes sense when you consider the threat of malicious extensions, and how most people don't read the permissions prompt.

Search Provider is not an extension it is just a setting in your browser so I am not buying the argument that is is for security purposes.

Also, these three steps are not intuitive i.e. you can't ask user to click a button on your website to initiate the change. While on Firefox, clicking on a button, a prompt gets shown to make your search engine default one. Even in case of Firefox, user has to explicitly click on check-box to make your search engine default.

Try here http://www.verticalset.com/

I don't know what he is talking about. I have my search engine settings page open and there are more than 20 different search engines listed that I can make default with one click, including Duck Duck Go!

I like the idea and philosophy behind Duck Duck Go, but maybe improving the search results, which are no where near as good as Google's results, would help bring more traffic than whining about non-issues.

If anyone is curious where this comes from, I wrote extensively about the usability issues with adding search engines to browsers here: http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/blog/2011/02/usability-issues...

Which is totally true. Also, if one has already searched on DuckDuckGo, it's even easier to switch to it as it has been added to the search engine list.

What's the qualification for a "popular search alternative" ? Is there a specific level of market share that's required before a SE can be included in that list?

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