Hi momentaryloss, to set up Startpage as a search engine on the new Firefox for Android, follow the steps for "Add a Search Engine" in this article:

Manage my default search engines in Firefox for Android

In step 5, you'll need this search string (easier to paste than to type!):

https://www.startpage.com/do/dsearch?query=%s

Once it is set up, you should be able to make it the default search engine.

Success?

Sorry, forgot this part:

One of the best features of the old android app, where I had Startpage as my default search engine, was that I could type something into the address bar and just press enter to use my default search engine or I could choose to revert to Google or Wikipedia straight from the address bar, depending on what search I needed.

Under

menu button > Settings > Search

in the section of the panel titled Address Bar, the first setting, "Show search shortcuts", is what I think you're looking for.

Hi momentaryloss, to set up Startpage as a search engine on the new Firefox for Android, follow the steps for "Add a Search Engine" in this article: Manage my default search engines in Firefox for Android In step 5, you'll need this search string (easier to paste than to type!): https://www.startpage.com/do/dsearch?query=%s Once it is set up, you should be able to make it the default search engine. Success?

Thanks - that was really helpful.

I tried using the example query format in the Firefox for Android settings which gave me: https://www.startpage.com/search?q=%s

That didn't work but using your format for the URL (https://www.startpage.com/do/dsearch?query=%s) enabled me to add the search engine and set as default successfully.

Thanks again.

Thanks for both replies jscher2000.

Your advised format of https://www.startpage.com/do/dsearch?query=%s allowed me to add the Startpage effectively as an additional search engine and then to set it as a default.

I had originally followed the guidance example in the search settings in Firefox for Android itself (as opposed to the online support pages). This suggested that the format for adding a search engine was to use the format - https://www.startpage.com/search?q=%s which didn't work.

Likewise ensuring that I had switched on the "Show search engines" switch in Search settings, gave me a choice of "this time, search with:" and the list of available search engines. I wonder if a similar setting was there on the old version of Firefox for Android, and I selected it so long ago that I forgot about it.

It's often reconnecting with the simplest processes that you become used to doing without thinking that has the biggest effect on your enjoyment of any major upgrade.

Thanks again.

There's a link filter. Including any URLs sends your replies to the spam moderation queue. One of those posts should appear eventually.

I don't think the current status works well with searx. searx hides the queries by default. If we add q=%s, we might let the result websites know the query words and be less private.

Hi chentz1993, as you point out, currently only GET requests -- requests where the query terms are transmitted as part of the URL -- can be set up in Firefox for Android.

POST requests -- where the query terms are transmitted as part of the request body -- can't bet set up.

That said, I'm not sure I understand your comment here:

If we add q=%s, we might let the result websites know the query words and be less private.

If your search engine uses HTTPS, then everything in the URL after the the host name is encrypted while it is sent over the network, and your query terms are just between you and your search site. This makes the privacy of the GET request equal to a POST request as far as the rest of the world is concerned. But GET requests are still less private in your own browsing history.