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I'd like to be able to change my search quick-key from Google, probably to DuckDuckGo, as it has some great shortcuts, and has a short, readable privacy policy. However some cursory research suggests that to do this, one has to have a rooted phone. Can this be done without rooting?

I am running a Samsung Galaxy Europa with Android 2.2, though I'd expect the answer will apply to any Android device. I should think I'll be rooting my device anyway, but it would be good to give non-rooted phone owners a choice of search facility, if it is possible!

Izzy
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halfer
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1 Answers1

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The official DuckDuckGo app has its own search widget that can replace Android's built-in Google search widget. Have you tried that?

GAThrawn
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  • Thanks for the reply. Indeed I have tried it - that's the app I'd like to launch when I press the search quick-key (see the button featuring a magnifier icon on the right hand side here). I can't seem to see settings for that either in the DDG app, or in the phone's general settings - I'm currently taking the view that it is not possible to change without root access. – halfer Jun 26 '12 at 13:09
  • Aha! I've just found in Google Search, one can do: menu -> Search Settings -> Searchable Items -> untick everything, tick DuckDuckGo (of course this needs the DDG app installed). This seems to work, insofar as a DDG search can be done via the quick key. However it isn't the full solution imo - unless I can find evidence that the search terms don't go to Google. Launching DDG, rather than Google>DDG, would solve that :) – halfer Jun 26 '12 at 13:17
  • (Side note - I will be rooting the phone and installing DroidWall at some point anyway. So I'll be able to analyse the Google search app and see what searches cause it to phone home, though of course this will only be true for the version I test). – halfer Jun 26 '12 at 13:20
  • sorry it's been a couple of years since I had an Android phone that had an actual Search button, had forgotten that some phones have them. – GAThrawn Jun 26 '12 at 23:00
  • No worries. It's not a big deal to create a desktop shortcut to DDG, so I've done that for the time being; I'll explore further options once the device is rooted :). – halfer Jun 27 '12 at 08:43