Search engines should be configurable

[IrascibleMan]

IrascibleMan last edited by

Let's first clarify what is the current state:

• the default search engines are configured in default_partner_content.json for each country
• the shortcut for the default search engines is configured in default_partner_content.json
• you cannot change the shortcut of default search engines
• you cannot have the same shortcut twice (what is reasonable)
• you cannot choose a custom search engine to be the default search engine
• the search popup always uses google (at least in my country: DE)

1. To make it usable the shortcut has to be configurable. For example y is configured to be Yahoo in Germany. Sorry: I don't know anyone in Germany using Yahoo at all. And I'm used to have youtube on y.
2. Unless you are paid by the partners it should be possible to choose another search engine as default search engine. Nobody expects that you add all known search engines to default_partner_content.json but also you should not expect to fulfill everyones needs.
3. It should be possible to select the default search engines. Make it transparent that choosing a location (I can't remember to choose one) defines your search engines. A Russian living in Germany might wan't to have wikipedia_ru instead of wikipedia_de. Better it would be to add and remove "default search engines" (I don't know the namings in English opera) from your predefined list.
4. Last but not least: why is the search popup (alt+space) not using the default search engine? It sounds obvious that this is using the default search engine.

I don't know why all this is fixed but I assume it is for security reasons. This is not the way to solve security issues. When you are afraid that a client software changes something and harms the user you could ask the user if the value changes to confirm it with some captcha or password (just to ensure it was not a malware). Instead you are forcing the user to use your configuration.

Please take this serious - I want to use Opera. It's a great browser!

[opera-user-from-2002]

opera-user-from-2002 @IrascibleMan last edited by

@IrascibleMan Thank you for the suggestion, I also would like to see it implemented. Btw, how would you implement the following: "ask the user if the value changes to confirm it with some captcha or password"? How we can prevent malware from modifying option where the flag "default search engine has been changed" is stored?

[IrascibleMan]

IrascibleMan last edited by

@opera-user-from-2002 I mean that it could be necessary for security reasons to store some configurations encrypted. I'm not a master of encryption but there should be a solution that finds out manipulations to the configuration and either resets the configuration to the last version the user solved a security question or asks the user to confirm these changes. In the configuration page it could also ask these configuration before setting the default search engine to a custom search engine.

[opera-user-from-2002]

opera-user-from-2002 last edited by

I understand this, just wanted to say that it something is encrypted there should be a key. If key is stored locally malware can read it and do whatever it needs.

Anyway I am not sure if developers read this forum. Opera can't change default search engines, can't hibernate tabs after eliminating extended-lazy-session-loading flag (I am aware of "Tab Suspender (memory saver)" extension, but it has major drawback causing lost tabs), can't show sidebar only for speed dial. 2 of 3 issues raised after update.