Add AskUbuntu search to the firefox search engines

[Stephen Rees-Carter]

Binary package hint: firefox

Note: this is more of a feature request than a bug.

Would it be possible to have the 'AskUbuntu.com' Firefox Search engine added by default into Firefox?

Yes, it is simple to add it once you go to Ask Ubuntu, but you have to actually know about it and go there FIRST before you get the search engine. Adding it by default into the Search Engines list has the potential to direct lots of users to Ask Ubuntu who wouldn't normally know about it.

Maybe even have it in the default bookmarks mark too.

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

We will add a bookmark for it, but the list of search engines is already long enough IMO

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

Actually, I'll keep this open for now. We do add an ask.com plugin already, but I don't know if anybody really uses that. I'm not totally convinced that this should be a default plugin though. In any case, someone would need to provide me a URL that the plugin could use ;)

[Stephen Rees-Carter (valorin)]

From looking at the list of defaults, I personally see no need for Ask.com or eBay (and Yahoo + Bing, but we need to be fair to them!), and I agree that most people probably won't have any need for them either.

My view is that if AskUbuntu is to be an official help source, having it in there would be perfect for new users. As much exposure as possible :)

In regards to actually getting the search engine, it's defined by: http://askubuntu.com/opensearch.xml
Linked in the HTML with: <link rel="search" type="application/opensearchdescription+xml" title="Ask Ubuntu - Stack Exchange" href="/opensearch.xml">

Within my .mozilla config directory I have the file:

valorin@gandalf:~/.mozilla/firefox/6fnc78a6.default/searchplugins$ ls -la
total 28
drwxr-xr-x 2 valorin valorin 4096 2011-04-05 15:38 .
drwx------ 10 valorin valorin 12288 2011-04-05 20:37 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 valorin valorin 2015 2011-04-05 15:38 ask-ubuntu.xml
valorin@gandalf:~/.mozilla/firefox/6fnc78a6.default/searchplugins$ cat ask-ubuntu.xml
<SearchPlugin xmlns="http://www.mozilla.org/2006/browser/search/" xmlns:os="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/">
<os:ShortName>Ask Ubuntu</os:ShortName>
<os:Description>Search Ask Ubuntu: Q&amp;A for Ubuntu users and developers</os:Description>
<os:InputEncoding>UTF-8</os:InputEncoding>
<os:Image width="16" height="16">data:image/x-icon;base64,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</os:Image>
<os:Url type="text/html" method="GET" template="http://askubuntu.com/search?q={searchTerms}">
</os:Url>
</SearchPlugin>

So this would be the user-specific directory, the common system-wide one appears to be:

root@gandalf:/usr/lib/firefox-addons/searchplugins/en-GB# ls -la
total 32
drwx...