[matthewmacleod]

I don't really understand what you mean by "Copying the search url to 'site search' doesn't work"

1. Go to "Manager search engines and site search"

2. Click "Add" next to "Site search"

3. Add DuckDuckGo with the URL "https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%s"

4. Save, click the additional menu, and make it the default

5. All address bar searches now happen in DuckDuckGo

What's stopping this from working?

[wakawaka28]

I still prefer Firefox but ironically Firefox used to have similar steps to add a search engine. They removed the "Add" button. You can still add one in a few less obvious ways but it's really ironic that they make it hard. It's part of Mozilla's ambition to foist soft censorship on people.

We need better browser options but unfortunately the job of maintaining a browser is huge and there is market capture involved. If you did make a new browser, the big ones would eventually add a feature that you either can't or won't implement, and then many sites won't work in your browser. Maybe the solution is to default to a trusted browser and only use Chrome and friends as a last resort.