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Manage my default search engines in Waterfox for Android

Waterfox for Android gives you the ability to add, remove, and change a default search engine. There are a variety of search engines available to choose from such as Google and Bing. You can also manually add other search engines and set one of them as your default.

Note: Some search engines are regionally bound and may not be accessible from every location. Make sure the search engine you want is available in your region.

Change the default search engine

Section titled “Change the default search engine”
  1. Tap the search engine icon in the address bar.
  2. Tap Search Settings.
  3. Tap Default search engine.
  4. Select the search engine of your choice.
Section titled “Change the search engine for a single search”
  1. Tap the search engine icon in the address bar.
  2. Select the search engine you want to use for this search.

This will not change your default search engine.

Edit search settings

Section titled “Edit search settings”
  1. Tap the search engine icon in the address bar.
  2. Tap Search Settings.
  3. Under Search settings, you can toggle any of the following:
  • Show search suggestions: Display search suggestions from your default search engine when you enter URLs or keywords in the address bar.
  • Show in private sessions: Display search suggestions when searching from the address bar in private browsing sessions. Note: This option is only active if “Show search suggestions” is toggled on.
  • Show recent searches: Display recent searches when searching from the address bar.
  • Search browsing history: Include your browsing history in searches from the address bar.
  • Search bookmarks: Include your bookmarks in searches from the address bar.
  • Search synced tabs: Search tabs that you have synchronized from another copy of Waterfox using Waterfox Sync.
  • Show voice search: Display the microphone icon to perform a web search using voice.
  • Autocomplete URLs: Autocomplete website addresses entered into the address bar.
  • Show clipboard suggestions: If the last thing you copied to the clipboard was a link, the option “Fill link from clipboard” shows up when you tap the address bar in a new tab.

Add a search engine

Section titled “Add a search engine”
  1. Tap the search engine icon in the address bar.
  2. Tap Search Settings.
  3. Tap Default search engine.
  4. Tap Add search engine.
  5. Provide a name for the search engine in the designated Name text field. Then, input the URL for the search string in the Search string URL field. Optionally, include a URL for the Search Suggestion API, and tap Save.

Manage alternative search engines

Section titled “Manage alternative search engines”

The search engine is added to the predefined list of search engines in alphabetical order.

  1. Tap the search engine icon in the address bar.
  2. Tap Search Settings.
  3. Tap Manage alternative search engines.
  4. Select the engines you want to have visible in the search menu.