When trying to change default search engine in chrome to duckduckgo, it's not on the dropdown (settings > search engine). Copying the search url to 'site search' doesn't work, ddg not listed on search engine and cannot be made default.<p>Google search on how to change to ddg produces old results that don't apply to the status quo. I still haven't figured out how to do it. I don't want to install the extension or use the ddg browser.<p>This is using the .deb file from google, on ubuntu LTS. As vanilla a chrome install as it can be.<p>Google seems to be going heavy-handed on people staying with their search engine.
You didn't mention a reason, but why wouldn't you just switch to Firefox? It will give you back control of your own web experience and allow you to fiddle with everything you can imagine in the settings and/or about:config.<p>Or maybe try one of the any Chrome derivatives that may have less dark patterns like De-googled Chromium or even Brave?
Somewhat ironically, you mentioned the Google results were unhelpful. But, the DDG results for this search look pretty reasonable.<p><a href="https://duckduckgo.com/?q=add+duck+duck+go+to+default+search+in+chrome&va=c&t=hd&ia=web" rel="nofollow">https://duckduckgo.com/?q=add+duck+duck+go+to+default+search...</a><p>The first hit: <a href="https://duckduckgo.com/set-as-default" rel="nofollow">https://duckduckgo.com/set-as-default</a><p>It even has instructions for how to add DDG if it isn’t in the default list.
@urlwolf, it's not that difficult. This screenshot > <a href="https://imgur.com/a/24QPs2c" rel="nofollow">https://imgur.com/a/24QPs2c</a> once you click add, you can add your own search engine.<p>As far as I know, it's been like this for a long time.
I don't really understand what you mean by "Copying the search url to 'site search' doesn't work"<p>1. Go to "Manager search engines and site search"<p>2. Click "Add" next to "Site search"<p>3. Add DuckDuckGo with the URL "<a href="https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%s" rel="nofollow">https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%s</a>"<p>4. Save, click the additional menu, and make it the default<p>5. All address bar searches now happen in DuckDuckGo<p>What's stopping this from working?
I'm using Chrome on Windows, just checked.
DDG is in the drop down of default search engines.<p>Might be a ubuntu package issue? Or could it be a localization thing? Living in the EU might help here?
1. Not using apt repo?<p>2. It's customary to provide exact details to ensure minimal complete example reproducibility. Should've included the URL to the .deb and/or a Dockerfile.