No longer able to do custom search engine URLs?

[nateluebbe]

I used to have my Google URL for searches set to https://www.google.com/search?udm=14&q= so that I don’t get any of the AI summaries. I updated my browser and now it’s just searching default Google and I can’t seem to edit the custom URL anymore. This would be an enormous disappointment if that feature is gone.

[Saoiray]

@nateluebbe did you uninstall or something? Just updating the browser shouldn’t reset any changes you had made.

Anyway, the issue you’re having is how Search Engine vs Site Search works in the browser.

Search Engines

Everything in Search Engines are the ones that are included in the browser by default. They can be deleted but they can’t be edited for some strange reason. This is actually true in Chrome as well, so it seems just to be a Chromium thing.

Though Brave has gone one step further in that most of the default URL include extra strings of info to point out that it’s using Brave. This is because those search engines often pay web browsers for having them as the default options.

So when you go to brave://settings/searchEngines if you hit the edit on any of the Search Engine you’ll notice things like:

• https://www.ecosia.org/search?tt=e8eb07a6&q=%s&addon=brave

• https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%s&t=brave

• https://www.startpage.com/do/search?q=%s&segment=startpage.brave

Site Search

This section are search engines we add ourselves. It can be full search engines like Google or it can be any search function on whatever website. The key idea is these are search engines and can be made the default, it’s just in its own category to differentiate whether it was in the browser by default.

Default Search Engine

Can be from either of the above. For example, below is a screenshot of Site Search and it has a DuckDuckGo entry I manually put in.

Now if I go up to Search Engines I can see that the one I just used Make Default is listed. Of course, so is the other DuckDuckGo that was there by initially as part of the browser installation.

[Saoiray]

@nateluebbe TL;DR of my prior reply is you can edit but only if it’s as Site Search.

[nateluebbe]

@Saoiray I do not have the option to make “site search” my defaults. I’ve added a custom Google URL (named “good Google) as site search, but it does not show up as an option for default search.

[Saoiray]

@nateluebbe sorry, I guess I should have been more clear. You wouldn’t do it through that top part but instead through Manage Search Engines and Site Search as the red arrows are pointing to in the screenshot below:

Clicking that takes you to a menu like below

Is it on this screen that you can add Site Search options, such as if you wanted to create a second Google option with your own unique search URL. Or if you wanted to add anything else. And the three dots (hamburger menu) to the right of them when you make it is where you’ll be able to Make Default

In the above you’ll see I have ChatGPT listed in Site Search. If I click Make Default it jumps up to Search Engines and has (Default) next to its name

-NOTE-

Site searches don’t show up under that first area you were. Like you see how I have Presearch, History, ChatGPT, and others for Site Search. But if I was on that first layer, I’d only see things listed under Search Engines. Again, it’s built to try to show you only the default options. Any manual entries require additional steps. Below just to show how those things I added don’t appear.

[Saoiray]

Just in case you aren’t sure about how to create a Site Search, I’ll walk you through the basics below. First thing is on the menu I shared with you above, you would go to where Site Search is listed and you’d hit Add to create a new one. You’d see below:

• Name = Whatever you want to reference it as so you know what it is compared to any others that might be there. Such as if you have 2 different Google ones, you would maybe name Google No AI for the one you’re entering.

• Shortcut = Whatever you want to be able to type to use it if another search engine is in use. Like maybe you use Brave Search as your default and you want to do a Google search. If your shortcut is :g then you’d use that, press space or tab, and it will switch to Google for the search engine for that one search only.

• URL with %s in place of query = They are basically saying to do a search on the site and then look at the URL. Let’s say I wanted to add Yahoo. I would go and search, like Why is Brave awesome?

  • The URL looks like https://search.yahoo.com/search?p=why+Brave+is+awesome&fr=yfp-t&fr2=p%3Afp%2Cm%3Asb&fp=1. What we need to do in that is look for the start of the search term, which is Why. Delete it and everything after it, replacing it instead with %s in its place.

  • So now I’d have https://search.yahoo.com/search?p=%s

  • Once all of that is in, hit Add and you can make it the default search or use it as an optional search via the shortcut you want to type in the address bar when searching.

[nateluebbe]

I am also not able to set my Site Search options as default through the screen you have suggested either.

[Saoiray]

@nateluebbe can you show a screenshot of the inputs you made?

@nateluebbe

https://www.google.com/search?udm=14&q=

For example, if you did the one I quoted, then it wouldn’t be quite right as you’d be missing the %s

https://www.google.com/search?udm=14&q=%s. If you didn’t have it in the right format, it wouldn’t work.