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How to get rid of Google from my search/browser.

bakerrrr
bakerrrr
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In Firefox, I select DuckDuckGo as default Browser. I type the word "news" and in the address bar it automatically adds google which I don't want. Even when I type in the Firefox address bar, the address always converts to news.google.com. I have to manually select DuckDuckGo as the news browser. How do I stop Goggle from redirecting my search to its news address?

In Firefox, I select DuckDuckGo as default Browser. I type the word "news" and in the address bar it automatically adds google which I don't want. Even when I type in the Firefox address bar, the address always converts to news.google.com. I have to manually select DuckDuckGo as the news browser. How do I stop Goggle from redirecting my search to its news address?

All Replies (3)

jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
  • Top 10 Contributor
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The "autofill" feature in the address bar pulls domain names from your history. So probably you have visited Google News at some point.

If you are trying to do a news search, after news, add a space and then a second word related to what kind of news you are looking for. Then Firefox should change to sending the phrase to your defeault search engine instead of trying to match an address from your history. Does that work?

bakerrrr
bakerrrr Nkolo motuna
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Your suggestion does help, i.e., I hit space bar and add another word. So I typed "news news" and I got DuckDuckGo instead of Google news. Great workaround. As for history I wiped clean my search history, but that did not help. I've also turned off any history I find. Is there a way for me to erase domain names from search history? My motivation is not so much privacy as it is avoiding this level of automation. It's important to be involved in the process at the user level as much as possible and so I don't mind missing the possible second or two saved with automation. I get to where I want without asking the computer to remember for me. Thanks again

jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
  • Top 10 Contributor
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Actually, I meant browsing history, not search history. You can "deep flush" Google News from history using the method below, or you can turn off the in-address-bar autofill completely and not worry about problem sites showing up in the bar ever.

Clear a Site's History

  • Open the Library window to history using Ctrl+Shift+H (or menu button > History > Manage History).
  • In the tiny search box at the upper right, enter news.google.com to list all Google news results in your history
  • Right-click any entry and choose Forget About This Site to flush them all at once

Turn off domain name autofill

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button accepting the risk.

(2) In the search box in the page, type or paste browser.urlbar.autoFill and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click the preference to switch the value from true to false

More info on about:config: Configuration Editor for Firefox.