On 10/30/2011 8:05 PM, Advrk Aplmrkt wrote:
Hello, It occurred to me that the recent version of the Tor Browser Bundle uses Google as its default search engine. However, as we all know very well, Google actively tracks its users. Despite the fact the the whole point of Tor, and indeed the functionality the Tor Browser provides, improves anonymity, would it be better to switch to another default search engine? This may be DuckDuckGo, Scroogle, or others.... Thanks!
Of course, you can always del the Google search plugin from TBB folder "Tor Browser\FirefoxPortable\App\Firefox\searchplugins."
When I type in search term in w/ Google selected as current search engine in TBB, ON THE * 1ST SEARCH ATTEMPT * w/ Google selected in search engine box, it pops up a msg saying, "Torbutton has detected a Google captcha. Would you like to be redirected to another search engine for this query?" - as has been Tor behavior for long time. There's also a box to make this action permanent.
*** BUT, on a 2nd SEARCH, w/ Google still selected as search engine, TBB does NOT show the screen, asking if you'd like to redirect to another search engine. SEEMS like a BUG. I tried various ways to get TBB to present the "do you want to redirect to another search engine" again, after the 1st search in a session, but couldn't get it to (if didn't check "make this permanent"). Not sure why developers leave Google search in, but the search plugins listed below are default ones in Firefox.
In my version of TBB, chooses to redirect from a Google captcha, automatically offers duckduckgo, when in about:config, because the DEFAULT setting for redirect engine to use is: extensions.torbutton.google_redir_url * 5,* meaning the DEFAULT selection for redirection is # 5 url (duckduckgo, in my case), not url 1 (Ixquick). Other than developers choice, no idea why # 5 url (duckduckgo) is selected by default. The pop up screen to redirect should really give users options to choose from the several alternate search engines. AFAIK, only way now is to alter about:config entry: extensions.torbutton.google_redir_url 5 to a values corresponding to the search engine desired.
I'd rather they not make Google the default selected search engine. Make Google searches an opt in vs opt out. In TBB about: config, browser.default.searchenginename is set = Google. Not sure why.
Looking at included search plugins in TBB 2.2.34, search plugins included by default are Amazon, Ebay, Bing, Google, Wikipedia, Yahoo. You can del them from the searchplugins folder, or just not use them. Ixquick (which for a while was the one Tor redirected Google searches to) is another that doesn't log users' searches. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ixquick-https-privacy-search-e/?src=search
Ixquick, Scroogle, DuckDuckGo, Wikipedia are all available in SSL / HTTPS plugins from Mozilla.
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