Like Chrome, Firefox also opens to Google by default. Make sure the switch is turned on and set the custom URL to so you will be taken to Google each time you tap the home button.
In the Android version of the mobile app, you can add a home button to Chrome under Settings > Homepage. Now when you click the Home button you will be immediately taken to Google. Set this to custom and enter as the homepage. You then have the option to set the home button to open either a New Tab page or a custom URL. Make sure the switch next to Show home button has been toggled on, which will add a house icon next to the URL bar. However, there is more you can do.Ĭlick the three-dot menu in the top-right corner of the browser and select Settings > Appearance. Just click the plus (+) icon at the top of the browser to start searching.
The browser's New Tab page has a Google search bar embedded right in the middle. Technically, Chrome already opens to Google by default.
Here's how to set it up in Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge.
This may require a bit more manual work to fix this if this is the case. Unfortunately, we find that the most common problem is a piece of adware or malware that may have injected itself into your browser that has altered your search provider. If for some reason making these changes does NOT change your search provider to the one you want then you may have some kind of problem with your browser. That’s it for the major browsers in terms of changing your default search provider. Then choose Google if that is what you prefer and then click Set as Default in the bottom right. Then you will get a new window where you need to click Search Providers on the left hand side. In IE click the little gear in the upper right of the browser and choose Manage Add-ons. It’s certainly not a bad search engine but the reality is Google provides far more accurate results. Of course IE want you to use the Microsoft search engine which is Bing. Changing Your Search Provider in Internet Explorerįinally we come to Internet Explorer which is notorious for changing your search provider behind your back. If you want to add any additional search engines you can also click the “Manage Search Engines” button on the bottom. Once you choose a provider for that search then it will stay that way until you change it to a different one. You can switch search engines on the fly by choosing any provider in the drop down for the immediate search. As you can see in the pic, the one at the top is Google which is the default. Click the tiny icon in the left of the bar to reveal the different search engines. One is for your URL and the one on the right is for your searches. Firefox offers two bars at the top of the browser. If you are using Firefox instead of IE or Chrome the concept to change your search engine is very similar. Now whenever you want to search for something using the omnibox (that’s a fancy way of sayinr the URL/search bar in Chrome) you simply type your keywords and hit Enter and it will always return results from your chosen search provider. Then in themiddle of the page click the drop down arrow and choose Google or the search provider of your choice. If you are using Chrome, which is the browser we recommend to all our Boxaid customers, then click on the Settings button in the upper right of Chrome and choose Settings. As long as you don’t have a hijacked browser then its fairly easy to change your default search provider back to Google or whichever search engine you prefer.
Even worse, if you install a piece of adware or spyware that comes with a game for example you may get a no name search provider that you never heard of like Conduit Search which is a known piece of malware. They get a tiny little cut of profit for each person they can convert to that search provider. They do this because they make partner agreements with search providers such as Bing, Yahoo, AOL and of course Google. Occasionally, you will install a third party piece of software that will change your default search provider to something else which you DO NOT want to use. This means if you use the search bar in your browser to look for anything it will default to the search engine that you set. If you are using one of the three most popular web browsers on the planet which are Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome then you can set your default search provider to your favorite search engine and forget about it.
Many people have been using Google as their default search provider in their browser as far back as they can remember.