What search engine do you use in your web browser? Is it Google or something else? Among all search engines, only few gets popularity and Google is the most popular search engine among all. Bing, DuckDuckGo and Yahoo are also the two search providers. But, the use of Google search engine out-compete all others. Most of the major web browsers set Google as default search engine. Chrome is the own product of Google, and it’s default search engine is Google naturally. By default, Firefox also sets it’s primary search engine to Google web search. But, Bing is used as the default search provider in Internet Explorer and Edge browser. You can change the search engine and set it to Google very easily.
The search engine is nothing but a program which crawls the entire web for a specific search query and shows the results related to the search term or keyword.
Due to activity of some malware, the default search engine of any browser may be changed, and you need to set the default search engine to Google manually. In this article, I describe, how I make Google my default search engine and home page to any web browser like Chrome, Firefox, IE, Edge, Opera, Safari, etc.
Make Google My Default Search Engine and Home Page in Chrome Web Browser
Google Chrome is the popular most browser for browsing web pages worldwide. It is popular due to it’s advanced feature, compatibility and interface. As I told that Google is the default search provider for Chrome. But, if it is changed somehow, you can change it and set it to Google.com manually. For this, follow the steps below.
Computer:
Open Chrome browser.
Go to top right corner of the browser and click on the customized and control options button .
Navigate to Settings.
Scroll down to Search section.
From the drop-down, choose Google to set as default search engine.
If Google is not enlisted there, click Manage search engines button to open up search engines pop-up window.
Under Others search engine section, you can add the new search engine.
To add Google as default search provider in chrome, in the search engine name field add Google; in the keyword field, add google.com; in the URL field add {google:baseURL}search?q=%s&{google:RLZ}{google:originalQueryForSuggestion}{google:assistedQueryStats}{google:searchFieldtrialParameter}{google:iOSSearchLanguage}{google:searchClient}{google:sourceId}{google:instantExtendedEnabledParameter}{google:contextualSearchVersion}ie={inputEncoding}
Click on the Done button to complete.
Mobile:
Open Google Chrome from your mobile browser.
Tap the menu and go to Settings then.
In the settings page, under Basics section, tap on Search engine option.
Choose Google and click CLOSE button.
By following the above mentioned methods, one can set Google as the default search engine in Chrome mobile and desktop browser.
You can make Google as the home page of Chrome browser to search the web directly from the home page. You can set Google as Chrome browser’s home page only for desktop version of Chrome. It is impossible to set homepage in any android or tablet version of Chrome. To set google.com as home page you just follow the below instruction.
Visit Chrome’s Setting page i.e. chrome://settings/
Under Appearance section, tick the check box of Show Home button.
Click the Change link beside New tab page.
Select Open this page and type www.google.com in the associate field area.
Click OK button to save.
Now, when you click the home icon from the toolbar to access google’s homepage.
How to Change Your Default Home Page and Search Engine to Google in Firefox Browser
Firefox lets you search the web two ways – from the search box and from the URL field. When you type any keyword to the search box of Firefox browser, then you find a list of search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing, Amazon, DuckDuckGo, Twitter, Wikipedia, etc.) there. At the very bottom of the list, you find “Change search settings” option. There is another way to change the default search engine of Firefox to Google search.
Open Firefox browser.
Open menu from the right-top corner.
Select Options and click it to open the preference page.
From the left sidebar, choose search option. There you find a list of available search engines for the Firefox browser. Alternatively, the same can be accessed from the following URL:
Under Default search engine section, from the drop-down list, choose Google as your default search engine.
Restart the browser to apply the changes.
If you want to add a new search engine to Firefox, at first, visit the site. Inside search box, you should find icon at the search box. Click on it. Then choose add to Firefox option.
If you use Mozilla Firefox in your android mobile, then steps are slightly different from the desktop version. Let’s have a look on the steps to make Google as your default search provider in Firefox android version.
Tap the menu button (generally located at the top right).
Tap Settings option. For some devices, settings option is hidden under More setting.
Tap and Customize >> Search.
Tap the preferred search engine (Google here) and choose Set as default option.
If you want to add a new search engine on Firefox browser of your android device, just open the website. At the search box, you should find a new icon (plus with a magnifying glass). Tap on it to add a new search engine to Firefox.
To make “Google.com” as Firefox’s home page, open www.google.com and drag the URL to the home icon. You get a confirmation message saying that “Do you want this document to be your new home page?“. Just click Yes to confirm.
Set Google as Your Default Search in Microsoft Edge
‘Edge’ is the latest light-weight web browser from Microsoft and is available with Windows 10. As, it comes with Microsoft, so, the default search engine of this browser is Bing. But, if you are an Edge lover but do not love it’s default search – Bing, then you need to change the default search to Google. In the previous state, Edge did not allow you to change the search engine setting. But, in current version of the Microsoft’s Edge browser, you can change the search engine very easily.
To set Google as Edge’s default search, you need to follow the steps given below.
Open Edge browser and visit google.com first. Search anything on Google.
Tap on More button from the upper right corner of the browser’s window and navigate to Settings.
Click Settings and scroll down to View advanced settings option (under ‘Advanced Settings’).
Tap Change search engine button under “Search in the address bar with” option.
Choose Google search from the list, select Set as default option.
Thus, any search engine including Google search can be set to default search engine of Microsoft’s Edge web browser.
To make Google as the home page of Edge browser, go to Advanced settings option and turn the “show home button” to On. Choose a specific page option, at the URL box type www.google.com and save it.
See also: How to block advertisements on Edge browser
Make Google as Default Search and Home Page of Internet Explorer (IE 11)
There are many versions of Internet Explorer available. Configuration to set Google as default search in each version is different. I just only mention about the very latest version of Internet Explorer, i.e. IE 11.
How to make Google.com as default search provider in IE 11?
Open Internet Explorer 11. This version is available if you are the Windows 10/8.1 user.
In the top right corner of URL field/search box, click the drop-down and select Add button.
Select Google from the list. You can directly access the same page from the following URL:
Click on ADD button to add it to Internet Explorer.
Now, go to Settings >> Manage add-ons.
Select Search Providers under Add-on types.
Select Google from the list and select Set as default button.
If you want the Google to be your home page in IE 11, configure as below.
Open Internet Explorer >> Settings >> Internet Options.
Under General tab, you find the Home page section.
Type www.google.com in the Home page field.
Click Apply >> OK.
Make Google Search as Default Search in Safari
‘Safari’ is the built-in browser for any Apple OS (iPhone, iPad and Mac OS). But, the Windows version of Safari is also available. The Google search is the default search provider of safari. But, due to some malware or adware activity, the search engine may be changed. To make Google again it’s default search provider, just follow these steps.
Open Safari browser.
You will find a drop-down icon with a magnifying glass in the search field. Just, click on it.
Select Google right from the list.
Alternative Method:
Open Safari web browser.
Click on the Settings (Gear icon) from the top-right corner of the window.
Choose Preference option from there.
Under General section, you will find Default search engine option.
Select Google from the drop-down. That’s it.
To make google.com as the home page of Safari, just replace the Homepage field with “www.google.com”.
Make Google as Home Page & Default Search Engine On Opera Web Browser
If you are the Opera web browser lover, then you can easily set Google as the default web search engine.
Open Opera web browser.
Click on the Opera menu from the top left corner of the browser window.
Click Settings. To directly access the settings page press Alt+P together.
Navigate to Browser section from the left sidebar.
At the Search section, select Google from the drop-down. You can add new search engine with the Manage search engines option.
Click Done button to apply the changes.
If you want to change the home page of Opera web browser and try to set it google.com, then you are welcome. Just, go to settings page of opera browser.
Change the start up setting to “Open a specific page or set of pages“.
Click on set pages link.
In the Add a new page field enter the address “google.com”.
Click OK to save the settings. Thus, you can set Google also your Opera web browser’s home page. When you set Google to any web browser’s home page, you do not need to change the default search to Google. Because, from home page you can search anything using Google.
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