Duck Duck Go, Chrome and revenue for Linux Mint

[cwwgateway]

DDG is pretty much the only Search engine that explicitly states that the do NOT abuse the rights and privacy of their users. Whereas Google on the other hand explicitly states that they WILL track your surf habits as best they can.
Chrome anf FireFox browsers also have integrated search and URL field. (as of FF19 at least) The purpose of that is that EVERYTHING you enter will ALWAYS be sent to the configured search engine. If that is a URL the search will be aborted but the info has already been sent too the search company. If that search company is DDG the info is supposedly discarded. If it is Google it will be used to profile you and at the very least target ads and possibly be sold.
The fact that DDG also kicks back some money to Mint makes it the least of the evil.
Removing the automagic search from the browser is very difficult and can in worst of cases break the browser.

What if I want to search for an url in a search engine? Is there a way to disable this behaviour in FF19 to get the old search and navigation fields back?

Are you talking about a beta version of Firefox? I am using 18.02, and there is no such automagic search. The browser does not begin searching before I press Enter--a behavior I would find very annoying.

I haven't tried the betas yet either (using iceweasel 18.0.2). My guess, however, is that you can go to "toolbar layout' in the preferences section (assuming the layout you have has a "Firefox" or "Iceweasel" button; if you're using the traditional file, edit, etc, then I'm not sure where it is) and add a dedicated search box. Personally, one of the first things I do is remove the dedicated search box because I find it redundant, and I have it set up so I can type "google xyz.com" into the URL bar and it googles the URL.

[Mohr]

I forgot to reply about the privacy issues.

- We don't record or sell anything.

I thank you a lot, clem, for your explanation on these things.
And I didn't want to sound negative but in fact it was quite impossible to understand why Googles search results needs to be enhanced by Linux Mint .... they're so proud about their perfect algorythms

- DDG doesn't record or sell anything, that's one of the big reasons people use DDG.

Well - anybody knows why does it wants me to turn on JavaScript? It works without but only after you clicked again and again and again on "no-script-please" ....

[xenopeek]

I think concerns here have been answered, and this topic should not go further off-topic. Locking it. Thanks all for helping to answer the questions raised, and for caring about Linux Mint.

@Mohr, a little searching goes a long way You can use DDG without JavaScript, as they answer themselves here: http://help.duckduckgo.com/customer/por ... javascript