[WIP]: start adding support for other search engines. ( issue #1033 )

[Happy0]

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[Happy0]

Hullo @pfrazee . I seen you say you'd maybe accept a pull request for this on #1033 so I thought I'd give it a shot to get familiar with the code base =].

Not sure if I'm going in the right direction here or not...

My main question for the moment is - is it possible to get at the settings somehow from the app/shell-window/ui/navbar.js file? I see that the 'beaker' global (where you can get the settings from) isn't available here - I assume this is deliberate?

[pfrazee]

Hi @Happy0 !

Let's aim to have a few builtin options (DuckDuckGo, Google, Yahoo, Bing) and then an open input for the user to choose. For the open input, I think we'll need to store at least 2 data-points:

• Name / Label
• Query URL

Where "Query URL" is a template similar to https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%s. Since the user will be picking from a few presets and then from their own custom choice, I think we'll actually need 3 data-points in the settings:

• search_engine: One of the predefined engines, or "custom" if the user inputs their own.
• search_engine_name: The name/label of the engine
• search_engine_url: The URL template of the engine

These values will be set in all cases, so the predefined versions will simply give fixed values for _name and _url.

When used, we'll read search_engine_url and replace %s with the search query.

My main question for the moment is - is it possible to get at the settings somehow from the app/shell-window/ui/navbar.js file? I see that the 'beaker' global (where you can get the settings from) isn't available here - I assume this is deliberate?

It should be available, but perhaps not declared in the globals at the top of the file.

[aral]

Unlike mainstream browsers, and given the social mission of Beaker, it is irresponsible to expose the people using Beaker to surveillance capitalists like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. The business models of these corporations are grounded in tracking and profiling people. The browser should at least issue a warning about this. Otherwise, Beaker would be complicit in exposing the people using it to surveillance. Also, we should be visibly separating them from DuckDuckGo whose business model is not based on violating your privacy.

[pfrazee]

I'd be +1 to having DuckDuckGo as the only builtin option, and have users manually enter their alternatives

[Happy0]

Yeah, let's do that :). I was a bit squeamish about having Google, etc as selectable options as well. I'll update my PR to just be DuckDuckGo and a customised option. Would you mind if I added some autocomplete search functionality ( http://easyautocomplete.com/example/duckduckgo-ajax-api ) for DuckDuckGo while I'm at it? Or would you rather I did it in a separate pull request? When using a custom Search engine I guess we'd just not autocomplete the search as the user types in the address bar / search widget?

…

On Sun, 24 Jun 2018, 18:04 Paul Frazee, ***@***.***> wrote: I'd be +1 to having DuckDuckGo as the only builtin option, and have users manually enter their alternatives — You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#1052 (comment)>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ABF5XIm7MPlg_y79TNtcpqhFfDs04oOVks5t_8angaJpZM4UuTol> .

[aral]

Sounds great – thanks both! :)

Also, for future reference – in case we want some other convenient alternatives – here are some other search engines that do not track:

• Findx: https://www.findx.com (has own crawler/doesn’t use Google under the hood)
• Qwant: https://www.qwant.com
• StartPage: https://www.startpage.com

[pfrazee]

@taravancil do you have an opinion on adding duckduckgo autocomplete? Y/N?

[taravancil]

I just checked out that example - it could be a nice enhancement, but I think it should live in a separate PR :)

I'm also not quite sure about how I feel about that flavor of autocomplete in the URL bar. @Happy0 do you know if there are any browsers that support it? I want to get a sense for how it would feel in Beaker before moving forward.

[aral]

@taravancil It does seem more useful than the Safari autocomplete (see screenshot) – but I guess it comes down to how accurate the entires are. PS. The example seems to have some edge cases (see “undefined” entries in second screenshot). CC @pfrazee

[pfrazee]

I think the autocomplete could be cool- let's try it in a separate PR

[Happy0]

Thanks all :).

I should be able to work on this again (and possibly autocomplete) on Thursday.