mirror of
https://github.com/wezm/wezm.net.git
synced 2024-12-21 11:49:54 +00:00
57 lines
2.3 KiB
HTML
57 lines
2.3 KiB
HTML
In my ongoing efforts to distance myself from Google I started using
|
|
[DuckDuckGo][duck] as my default search engine. I tried the DDG Safari
|
|
extension but didn't really like it, especially
|
|
since it needed to add an entire new toolbar to the browser. Other
|
|
suggestions for adding DDG to Safari involved [hacking the binary][hack]
|
|
or other extensions, which I wasn't interested in.
|
|
|
|
[duck]: http://duckduckgo.com/
|
|
[hack]: http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20030514035516436
|
|
|
|
**Update 2018:** Safari and most other browsers now support DuckDuckGo
|
|
in their default search engine list. 🎉
|
|
|
|
**Update 2012:** There an easier way to achive what I describe below: Just
|
|
add a hosts file entry for search.yahoo.com that points at DuckDuckGo's
|
|
IP address and set you search engine to Yahoo! in Safari. [See DuckDuckGo
|
|
for the full instructions][hosts].
|
|
|
|
[hosts]: http://help.duckduckgo.com/customer/portal/articles/255650
|
|
|
|
My solution to the problem was to hijack the Bing option in the default
|
|
search box for use with DDG. **Note:** This solution assumes you will
|
|
never want to go to the `www.bing.com` domain, not a problem for me. The
|
|
steps to implement it are:
|
|
|
|
Add an entry for `www.bing.com` to `/etc/hosts` that points the domain to
|
|
your local machine:
|
|
|
|
127.0.0.1 www.bing.com
|
|
|
|
Next configure an Apache virtual machine to respond to the `www.bing.com`
|
|
domain and redirect the request to Duck Duck Go (or your search engine
|
|
of choice). This works because DDG accepts the search query in the same
|
|
query string parameter, `q`, as Bing and ignores the other Bing related
|
|
params.
|
|
|
|
`/etc/apache2/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf`:
|
|
|
|
<VirtualHost *:80>
|
|
ServerName www.bing.com
|
|
RewriteEngine On
|
|
RewriteRule ^/search(.*)$ http://duckduckgo.com/$1 [redirect,last]
|
|
</VirtualHost>
|
|
|
|
For this to work you will need to have "Web Sharing" enabled in the Sharing
|
|
preferences pane and have the the following line included in
|
|
`/etc/apache2/httpd.conf`:
|
|
|
|
Include /private/etc/apache2/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf
|
|
|
|
Restart Apache (`sudo apachectl graceful`) and set your search engine
|
|
to Bing in Safari. Do a search and you should end up at the DDG
|
|
results. One of the neat features of DDG is its [!bang syntax][bang],
|
|
which allows you to search to 100s of sites directly. One of which is
|
|
`!g` for those times when you need to fall back on Google.
|
|
|
|
[bang]: http://duckduckgo.com/bang.html
|