Safari is the default browser app comes as part of all Apple products. It automatically blocks trackers from websites profiling your activities and protect your privacy. Apple sets Google as the default search engine in Safari iPhone, though it may be different on certain countries. For example, Baidu may be the search engine when you purchase iPhone in China. However, you can change it as per your convenient and also use site specific search with custom search engine shortcuts. Here is how you can do that in iPhone.
Default Search Engine in iPhone
Generally, users open the search engine websites like google.com, type the search query and get the results. However, Safari has an advanced address bar called Smart Search Field. You can simply type the query in Smart Search Field and press “go” button on keyboard to get the search results. In this case, Safari will use the default search engine you have selected in the settings to show the results.
Change Default Search Engine in Safari iPhone
Follow the below steps in iOS.
- Tap on “Settings” app and open “Safari” option.
- Scroll down and check “Search Engine” under “Search” section.
- Tap that “Search Engine” option and select the service provider you want to use.
Note: Changing Safari search engine will NOT change the search engine used by Siri. It will be based on your country decided by Apply like Google in USA or Baidu in China. There are no settings available in iOS to change the Siri search engine.
Using Custom Website Searches
The list of available search engines depends on the country you purchase your iPhone. In the above screenshot, you can see the list includes Google, Bing, Baidu, Yahoo, Sogou, 360 Search, DuckDuckGo and Ecosia. But what if you want to use a different website for searches other than the listed items? Safari automatically will recognize the built-in search engines from the websites when you open. You can make use of this feature to do direct searches within website (without using default search engine). Let us say, you want to use webnots.com and search for iPhone topics. Follow the below instructions for that:
- When you are in the Safari Settings page, tap on “Quick Website Search” option.
- This option should be enabled by default, otherwise turn the switch to on position to enable it.
- Check under “Websites Shortcuts” to see whether Safari recognized any search engines. As you see, webnots.com is not in the “Website Shortcuts” list.
- What you need is to simply open the site one time and do a search using the site’s search box.
- Since you used the search function in the site, Safari will automatically add it in “Website Shortcuts” list in settings page.
- Once the site is added in the list, type webnots.com iphone in Safari Smart Search Field.
- You will see list of suggestions and tap “Search webnots.com for “iphone”” option showing on the top.
- This will directly show the search results from webnots.com for the query “iPhone” instead of opening the results with your default search engine.
This will be useful when you frequently search in forum sites like Reddit, Stack Exchange, Quora, etc. Remember, your default search engine will still work from the Smart Search Field. Adding “Website Shortcut” is an additional way to get the results from specific sites.
Also, this option allows you to search the entire site for the typed query. You do not need the above steps for simply searching within the page you are viewing. Check this article on how to search and find words within webpages in Safari iPhone.
Deleting Custom Search Engine Shortcuts
If you do not want to use the custom site’s search engine function from Smart Search Field, you can delete it anytime.
- Go to “Settings > Safari > Quick Website Search” section.
- Swipe left on the site that you want to remove under “Website Shortcuts” section.
- Select “Delete” to remove the custom search engine.
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