Chromium Browsers Can No Longer Delete Default search engines

Most web browsers come with preconfigured search engines. If you don’t want to use the standard options, you can remove the search engines. However, in the latest versions of the Chromium engine, this possibility has been removed. So far, search engines could be edited via the settings. In addition to changing the name, it was possible to edit the provider’s URL or to delete the entry completely. According to Ghacks Some Reddit users have now noticed that the standard providers supplied can no longer be removed. In addition, the URLs of the entries cannot be edited. However, the names can still be adjusted.

Since the feature has been removed from Chromium’s code base, all browsers based on the Chromium engine are affected by the change. The innovation has already been implemented in Chrome, Edge, Brave and Opera. Vivaldi is still based on Chromium 96, so the option to clear the default search engines is still there.

Manipulation would be prevented

The change is intended to prevent malware from manipulating the standard search engines of the respective browsers. Attackers currently have the option of changing the URL of the provider and thus redirecting the traffic to their server. Of course, users still have the option of storing other search engines in the settings. In addition, it will also be possible in the future to specify any default search engine. The default providers just can’t be removed from the options, so there is always an option to go back to default search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing.