Add a search engine permission: ask when a site wants to add a search engine (e.g., block them all)

[ikjadoon]

Hello! A quick feature request.

Today, any site you've visited can add itself as a search engine in your URL bar. Thus, any time you start typing a domain in the URL bar, Edge will automatically try to match your query to the known search engines.

I browsed "DeliciousGrilledCheeseRecipies.com" once in my life: why should it get to install a search engine into my browser? Edge should let us block sites from automatically installing themselves as a search engine / provider. This "feature" by website owners is rather anti-user: don't interfere with the browser's search unless a user gives you permission. See for yourself:

edge://settings/searchEngines

It may be littered with hundreds of sites you once visited years ago. How does this affect a user? If you type any domain name that has installed a search engine, any time you type that domain name + space + any term, Edge now searches within that site instead of Google / Bing. For example, 

Search engine force installed (today:( type

wirecutter.com union news

-> this starts a search on wirecutter.com for "union news"

Search engine not installed (feature request:(

wirecutter.com union news

-> this starts a search on Google / Bing for "wirecutter.com union news"

I didn't want to search on wirecutter.com the website itself, but on Google for content about that website. We could remove the .com, but sometimes you actually want to include the TLD to be specific to the site (e.g., websites with also-an-English-word names like "chase.com" or "google.com"). I want to search about that site, not on that site.

 understand why it's a feature, so I agree allowing the default to be allow websites to add themselves as search engines, but by creating this new permission, it will allow those of us who'd like to block these uncontrollable search engines and only "install" search engines when we want to.

[#2]

Hey there @ikjadoon! This is a feature of the browser itself, and not a site permission. When you use a site's search field, it will be added as a potential search engine at edge://settings/searchEngines

The search you're describing is also a default setup/feature when adding these search engines. You can modify those search terms at edge://settings/searchEngines (the keyword column), you can omit the .com as you've mentioned in your post, or you can start your search with your preferred search engine, hit tab, and then use the full search term. For instance "bing" (Tab) "wirecutter.com union news" (Enter)

If you'd like to see an option to disable adding new search engines added, similar to what you've got described here, you can submit it to our Feedback portal as well!

Alex Rowell (she/her)
Community Manager - Microsoft Edge
Discuss Stable features and issues on the answers.microsoft.com forums, join us on Twitter, or join the communities over on Reddit in r/MicrosoftEdge or r/edge

[#3]

Thank you for the update, Alexandra. That's a great explanation; thank you for clarifying it.

Yes: unfortunately, sometimes I am looking for information referring to the site itself rather than the institution, say "Github.com bugs". It's not frequently, but it's happened enough where I've twice needed to remove all the extraneous search engines, but of course, they keep repopulating once I ever use the search engine on that site.

I'll add this to the Feedback portal!

[#4]

It can be annoying when websites automatically add themselves as search engines without your permission. It's important to have control over your browser's search options. Edge should definitely consider adding a feature to ask for permission before a site can become a search engine. In the meantime, have you checked out SEO audits and case studies? They can provide valuable insights on optimizing search engine performance. I recently came across a helpful guide on conducting an enterprise SEO audit that covers 24 key points to check on your website. It might give you some ideas on how to improve your own search engine strategy. Here's the link: https://vikinglinks.com/how-to-do-an-enterprise-seo-audit-the-24-points-to-check-in-your-website/