[SOLVED] How to Add Search Engines to Firefox?

[benali72]

How do I add additional search engines to the drop-down list box in the upper righthand corner of Firefox?

I clicked on the drop-down list box, selected "Manage Search Engines", then clicked on "Get More Search Engines..." in the Manage Search Engines panel.

This displays a page with additional search engines you can choose. So, I click on the icon for the engine I want (eg: IMDB or Ask)

At this point I get a screen with the message "In the top right corner of Firefox, click on the drop down list of search engines and select "Add IMDB".

However, the drop-down list box is unaltered... there is no entry saying "Add IMDB"

What am I missing ? Thank you.

(Mint 13 Mate newly installed, Firefox 12.0, presently updating system via Update Manager w/ slow internet connection).

[xenopeek]

Perhaps let the upgrade finish, as you should be nearer to Firefox 19 than to 12 on Linux Mint 13. If I follow the steps you describe, at the end if I click on the down arrow icon in the search box it shows "Add IMDB" as the second to last entry in the list.

You can also use Mozilla's MyCroft project page to add from a selection of thousands of search engines: http://mycroft.mozdev.org/search-engines.html.

[benali72]

Thank you, xenopeek. Yeah, I'm definitely not getting "Add IMDB" in the drop down list.

I'll be patient and let the upgrade finish... if that doesn't do the trick, I'll use your link to Mycroft. Thanks.

[benali72]

Well, I'm impatient about that upgrade, so I went to MyCroft, and it worked fine. Thanks again.

[aplatypus]

Thanks,

That myCroft page looks very nice. I thought I'd post for anyone interested in whatever is happening with the FireFox that comes with mint. I don't mind an open system making it easier to do some things, I find it underwhelming for it to "restrict" the selection of search engines I may and may not use.

I pretty much wasted two evenings clicking on [Install plug-in] buttons on the Mozilla site and restarting Firefox, only to discover it doesn't work. There's no message, warning or comment. The Mint search page does explain what is happening I guess, not especially clear on "how: that works and how to turn it off.

So any way the IMDB searcher is quite handy for me looking up stuff and feeding my appetite for trivia. The mozilla page won't work though:

• https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo ... 1/?src=api

You need to go here (as explained elsewhere):

• http://www.linuxmint.com/searchengines/ ... n=IMDB&c=y

And find the special button in the [search] text-box. This is shown very elegantly on linuxandlife.com.

• http://www.linuxandlife.com/2013/06/sea ... -mint.html

That little "Add IMDB" message pulls-up an XML file, that is:

• http://www.linuxmint.com/searchengines/imdb.xml

Code: Select all

<OpenSearchDescription>
   <ShortName>IMDb</ShortName>
   <Description>Internet Movie Database - Search titles, actors names and character names</Description>
   <Image height="16" width="16" type="image/x-icon">http://imdb.com/favicon.ico</Image>
   <Url type="text/html" method="get" template="http://www.imdb.com/find?s=all;q={searchTerms}"/>
</OpenSearchDescription>

Anyhoo, I'm using Mint 17 -- I guess the MyCroft page is the 'better' solution. If you want to have a go at rolling your own, or you're just curious. I thought that little peek at the mechanics would be interesting enough to give people some ideas.

cheers ...

[xenopeek]

That's probably what happens if you look at a more than 2 year old topic. Things have changed since then. To add the IMDB search engine you would just follow the appropriate links from the "Change Search Settings" menu found in your search bar if you click on the magnifying glass icon. Mind our forum rules, and don't revive support topics older than 6 months. Topic locked.