How to set a customized StartPage as your default search engine on FF

It's easy to set vanilla privacy preserving search engine StartPage as your default search engine on FF: Startpage provides an OpenSearch search engine, so the option "Add Startpage Search" should be displayed next to the URL/search bar of Firefox (go on StartPage.com and in the URL bar, click on the three "..." on the right; at the bottom you will see "add search engine"). See here for more detailled and visual explanation

An other way is to install the StartPage Addon found on AMO.

But StartPage is customizable (click on the hamburger on top right), and you may want to use a customized version of StartPage as your default search engine.
A first method consists in defining the the customization you want, and then save it in a cookie. But maybe as a sanitization measure, you regularly delete all your cookies, at least at closing/starting FF.

A second method is to embed your customization in an obfuscated link, for example:

Code:

---

https://www.startpage.com/do/mypage.pl?prfe=77b188ee314239c800f34bdb4522def624ab650f233ca028df0dfdf4592c0668096604cc59e920b5482fad7b53bd9aa05ecab636a89df0de11f64401ec0153d71f510597331a20fa5c7f77ddb9a938476523

---

For the customization encoded in this obfuscated link, "interface" and "search languages" are selected as English, "search suggestion" is ticked as well as "geographical map", "Wikipedia instant answer" and "proxy safety suggestions". On the other hand, "video family filter" and "web picture family filter" are deactivated. On each page you get 20 results instead of 10 and Post method is used, etc.

Then the problem is that, unlike Chromium-based web browsers, Firefox does not seem to provide users the option to directly add a search engine like the one with obfuscated customization above.


So, what if you want this customized version of StartPage as your default search engine, without using any cookie?


A workaround consists in first installing and using the addon Add-Custom-Search-Engine. Then, you click on this addon, chose a name for your customized StartPage (eg "MyStartPage"), and fill the "Search URL" field with something like the following format (here referring to the obfuscated StartPage link above):

Code:

---

https://www.startpage.com/do/dsearch?query=%s&prfe=77b188ee314239c800f34bdb4522def624ab650f233ca028df0dfdf4592c0668096604cc59e920b5482fad7b53bd9aa05ecab636a89df0de11f64401ec0153d71f510597331a20fa5c7f77ddb9a938476523

---

(ie you replace mypage.pl? by dsearch?query=%s&)

Then in the Addon's GUI you click on "Add Custom Search Engine", en finally, clinck on the "..." in your URL bar and click on "add search engine". Your customized StartPage version is then in place in your search engine list on FF. You can then define it as your default search engine in going to Tools>Options>Search (or else in typing in your URL bar about:preferences#search)


NB:
1) There is another addon that can be used: Search Engines Helper. With it, you can even export and import your search engines list (in Json format). But its privacy policy is much worse than that of Add Custom Search Engine, so I prefered the later for the purpose.

2) In Add Custom Search Engine GUI, you have a box named "Show advanced options". When ticked, this box gives you access ton an other box which, when selected, make that your added customized search engine will use POST query parameters. Don't select this option, even if your obfuscated StartPage link does contain de POST option, else the customized search engine will not work.

Using addons for this is overkill! Add a bookmark for your search engine with "%s" as a placeholder for the query, give it a keyword (can be a single letter), save. Focus the address bar, type the keyword, a space and what you want to search for, press Enter.

I've been using this method since 2008 and it works to this day. You may need to set keyword.enabled to false in about:config.