Can't change search to Google, stuck in DuckDuckGo

Question

Level 1

49 points

Can't change search to Google, stuck in DuckDuckGo

My Safari prefs show that Google is my choice for a search engine, since i changed that setting after using DuckDuckGo for a long time. When I type a search into the address field it comes up with Startpage, no matter what I do.

My motivation for going back to Google search is that it offers translations of pages in foreign languages. If i use Chrome, this all happens without a hitch. But I cannot get Safari to use a search engine that does translation.

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10), 27", 14,2 i5 3,2 GHz

Posted on May 5, 2015 9:55 AM

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Answer 1

thunderzzz

Level 6

8,452 points

May 5, 2015 10:01 AM in response to bobgoldstein

Try to click on Safari menu/preferences/privacy and change default engine to google. If it will change itself to Start page this may be the symptom of adware. Try to run adware medic tool in order to scan for adware: http://www.adwaremedic.com/

Download, open adwaremedic dmg file , and run it by clicking “Scan for Adware” button to remove adware.

Once done, quit AdwareMedic and restart your mac.

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Answer 2

bobgoldstein Author

Level 1

49 points

May 5, 2015 11:36 AM in response to thunderzzz

The adware medic ran without saying it found anything but I restarted anyway and verified that the Search pref for Safari was set to Google. When I entered a search term, the Startpage page came up as before (this is the normal result from DuckDuckGo). I then deleted all history for the past 2 days, and deleted the cookies left by startpage. I also visited Safari Prefs for Extensions and disabled Startpage. That did the trick.

I have yet to test all this by switching back to Startpage and then seeing if I can escape it by switching to Google or some other search facility.

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