AussieJohn Posted October 16, 2008 Report Share Posted October 16, 2008 Has anyone noticed that mandrivas updated Firefox in 2008-Spring and in the new 2009.official is using Ask as its search engine instead of Google ???. I have repeatedly tried it, and compared to Google it is a piece of garbage. Sure it comes up with search results but most seem to be for online retail sites. I went through pages and pages of Ask results that still didn't locate what I knew I had located readily in the past using Google. You can ASK but why waste your time ?. In the Mandriva-spring Firefox there is also no button anywhere that I can see to enable search for Add-ons, Extensions or Themes. Without it I cannot hope to find an extension for Google to get rid of this useless Ask, in particular. What is going on Mandriva ??. Is it a case that I selected Ask without knowing it ???. I really don't think so. Or has Firefox done a deal with Ask and dropped Google ??. I would be very surprised if that were the case since most of mozillas money comes from Google. What do fellow MUB members think ???. Cheers. John. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jkerr82508 Posted October 16, 2008 Report Share Posted October 16, 2008 Mandriva did a deal with Ask. (I suppose they need the money.) I kept my profile from previous installations and so Google is still my default. I have a down arrow beside the icon at the beginning of the search bar and by clicking on it I can choose from among the search engines that I have enabled. One of the options is "Manage Search Options" which allows you to add or delete search engines. There is also the Tools > Add-ons option in the firefox main menu. Jim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neddie Posted October 16, 2008 Report Share Posted October 16, 2008 Don't know, I don't use the search bar. I just type my search queries in the address bar, prefixed with "goo" for a google search, "goi" for a google image search, "gol" for a google linux search etc. Works for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw1974 Posted October 16, 2008 Report Share Posted October 16, 2008 I think I may have manually set mine to the default under about:config - either that or I had copied my .mozilla profile over - I can't remember which now :) browser.search.defaultenginename=Google browser.search.selectedEngine=google.co.uk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AussieJohn Posted October 17, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 17, 2008 Thank you all for your input. Naughty Naughty Naughty Mandriva. If Ask made a deal then it would explain why most of the search results are about online retailers, something I, and I am sure a lot of other people can well do without. I did your suggestion Ian and I am back to normal again. Cheers. John. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stv4rn0 Posted October 17, 2008 Report Share Posted October 17, 2008 Well, on the other hand Mozilla made a deal with Google to list them as the default search engine. For what it's worth i install the latest Firefox from tarball from their site, the bug/security fixes get closed quicker. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AussieJohn Posted October 17, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 17, 2008 Yes but the Google search engine works as a true search engine plus Google make their money from advertising. Ask does not seem to operate as a true search engine, just a way of pulling up webpages for its clients. That is a huge difference. The Mandriva bug and security fixes for Firefox are delivered just as quick. By all means do it your way but you are really just wasting your time and since it is your time then that is your choice. Cheers. John. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
So_it_goes Posted October 17, 2008 Report Share Posted October 17, 2008 I'm using neither, removed the searchplugins directory from the firefox directory. The paranoids search engine. www.scroogle.org // Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reiver_Fluffi Posted October 17, 2008 Report Share Posted October 17, 2008 I used to use ask.....about 10 years ago when you had to perform a search using a question, that soon stopped when when I discovered google. It's of no surprise that its as every bit as poor as it was ten years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg2 Posted October 17, 2008 Report Share Posted October 17, 2008 John- Unless I'm missing something here, you could have just clicked on the drop down box in the upper right hand side of your new Firefox 3.03 > Click on Google. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AussieJohn Posted October 17, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 17, 2008 Greg, you could be right. I am using 2008-Spring and haven't been back into 2009 for a while. I will check out your point when I go back into it. Reiver, I think you probably have a good point there. Would be hard to imagine anything worse. :D Thanks and cheers. John. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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