Cinnamenu@json: Is the Google search engine really a good idea?

[sphh]

 * Applet version/Build date: 4.3.1 (2020-08-12 09:13:42)
 * Cinnamon version: 4.6.7
 * Distribution: Mint 20

Notify author of applet @fredcw

Issue The Cinnamenu@json has a websearch built-in which points to google.com. It is well known that google.com is not respecting privacy (and if you decline to accept their conditions, you cannot use it at all!). This cannot be changed to another search engine, because it is hard-coded.

Expected behaviour

• Use a more privacy friendly search engine as default.
• Make the search engine user configurable. These are equally important.

[fredcw]

@sphh Thanks. I'll add an option to turn it off.

[sphh]

Thanks. That's one possibility to turn it off. Heaven would be, if the search engine were configurable (and have another default than google.com)!

[fredcw]

@sphh duckduckgo?

[sphh]

A very difficult question, which touches a couple of topics! What one might find good, the other will think is unacceptable. Would you want to promote one search engine against all the others? Etc. etc.

I used to be a big fan of duckduckgo until I read about the background of the owner. At the moment I give qwant, searx and swisscows a try... Here is a good overview (but there are many others): https://restoreprivacy.com/private-search-engine/

I don't know, if this is possible: Can't you use the default search engine of the default browser? Then nothing unexpected happens to the user!