Hello and welcome to Apple Support Communities, jigglyjams.
If I understand your post correctly, you're changing your search preferences but they seem to revert to search engines you don't want to use. I'd like to help.
It sounds like you've done some great troubleshooting so far. Let's do some testing to narrow down the issue. Safe mode will tell us if the issue is related to a startup item or plugins, and sometimes corrects the issue. This article will tell you how: Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac
If everything is working correctly in safe mode, but is not working when you get back to your user account, please check the section titled "If an issue doesn't happen in safe mode" for the next troubleshooting steps.
If the issue continues while in safe mode, a test user will let us know if the issue is isolated to your account, or system wide: How to test an issue in another user account on your Mac. If the issue happens in the test user also, then please check the section titled "If an issue happens in more than one user account."
Let us know if that resolves this issue for you.
Thanks for using the Apple Support Communities. Take care.
