[Duplicated]Google-only search bar in Speed Dial
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sdanop last edited by
I see this prominent Google search bar at the top of Speed Dial. I have selected DuckDuckGo as my search engine, and never chose Google. In fact, I'm rejecting Google by selecting Opera, or thought I was.
It is fascinating to me that you are so eager to get people integrated into the Google ecosystem. If you really want people to be so enmeshed with Google, you might just suggest to them that they download and use Google Chrome, and be done with it. The new Opera is already 90% Chromium anyway. And you're foisting Google on us almost as much as Chrome does.
Of course Google is paying you to do that. Because it's in Google's interests to wean people off of competitors to Google, which include...Opera.
Many default aspects of Speed Dial are rather obnoxious anyway. It's like trying to drive through a peaceful area and being assaulted by advertising billboards. I do like being able to save tabs to Speed Dial folders. Much of the rest is too marketing-intensive, and more in line with paying your bills than enhancing the user experience. I do like to know the weather in Oslo (yes, I keep it set to that because it's much more fun).
What could be useful though is to let users set up multiple search bars there, so we would have one page we could use to search whatever search engine we want. That could also include a shopping-specific URL or a finance-specific URL or an image-specific URL for a search engine (maybe even expanded from the main search engine's category there).
Configurable. Not just Google's way or the highway.
I search Google at times. I'm not above that. But it's already easy to do in Opera by typing "g" in the URL bar. I hardly see why you need to include a Google-only branded search query bar in the Speed Dial, other than that Google is paying you to do it, and has deeper pockets than DuckDuckGo or Ecosia or Kagi or...
Google is like Trump in that it has a giant ego and likes to plaster its name everywhere. Did it ever occur to you that maybe advertising Google, which makes the world's standard browser, could actually be counter to your own interests? If everyone just embraces Google, then Opera doesn't even exist.
It's like if RC Cola put an ad for Coke on their own can. Of course this would benefit Coke more than it would RC. I'm not saying you need to anger the Omnipotent Google gods, I'm just saying, you don't have to act like their little b----, either.
Just my couple of cents. One day Google's AI will probably blow up the planet. In the meantime I'd like to be able to at least pretend that I can hide from our Google Overseers, once in awhile.
I've used Opera for many years, so I do thank you for your efforts.