Syndicated search

[ferrarr]

Jake, do you remember where you read that? Do you believe that if you change the default search engine in Safari, it doesn't change the StartPage search engine? I'd love to read that, because I have never had that experience and more Mac users would be complaining about it.

 

[HondaMan983]

Well, I read that Startpage does searches, apparently anonymously for the user, but does go to Google, so if the search is entered from Startpage, which it seems to be from reading the URL details, then it will override the DDG setting.

So, if the OP doesn't want Googles searches, don't search from Startpage

I think the problem is solved - at least for the moment. It seems that if a site is sponsord; that is what causes the "syndicated search" message to appear. Solution: ignore the links to all sponsored sites!

 

[MacInWin]

Jake, do you remember where you read that? Do you believe that if you change the default search engine in Safari, it doesn't change the StartPage search engine? I'd love to read that, because I have never had that experience and more Mac users would be complaining about it.

Sorry, it was just in a passing site as I tried to find out what StartPage was. But if you parse the full URL that I referred to, there is a section that says that the source of the search request was StartPage. So, based on what @HondaMan983 just posted about links, I suspect he clicked on a link on StartPage that triggered a Google search. It didn't bypass Safari preferences, it just linked to Google behind the scenes and initiated a search there.

As an example, Patrick often posts links to Google searches he has done. I use DDG as my default, but if I were to click on his links, I would go to Google. I don't do that because I don't want anything Google on my network in any way.

 

[ferrarr]

But if you parse the full URL that I referred to, there is a section that says that the source of the search request was StartPage.

I can't seem to understand this. Whenever I do a DDG search from my navigation bar, and from the search bar, I get DDG results. How can I parse the full URL? I copied the link and pasted it here, but I don't understand it.

I understood what you mentioned yesterday, but even when I click on the link, I get the MacPaw website, which is more suspect than google.

@HondaMan983 did you install Clean My Mac from MacPaw on this machine?

 

[MacInWin]

I would post the full URL address, but every time I try to do that, this website turns it back to a link. So I'll have to tell you the hard way. If you hover the cursor over this copy of the link:

A step-by-step guide to creating a bootable macOS Catalina installer

On the bottom of the Safari window it will/should show the full URL for that link. It starts with "Open" and then the https address. On my system about 2/3's over to the right it says "www.startpage.com" and before that is "url=https" followed by the hex numbers for colon and double backslash, so the full address there is "https:// www.startpage.com" (I added a space to try to stop that from being turned into a link completely). Just before that URL is a reference to the gad_source being that URL. So, from that parsing, I deduced that the OP was entering his search from within StartPage, and that it was then linking to google for the search, bypassing the search default in Safari. Had the OP searched from the URL bar in Safari directly, I think DDG would have worked, but the search appears to have been initiated from within Startpage itself. His post #22 seems to confirm that he was using links on Startpage to search.

 

[ferrarr]

Thanks for that explanation. I still think the OP installed some software from Mac Paw or, Clean My Mac, because the link takes you to their support pages.

Here is the link I get, when I copy and paste from my address bar, after I clicked on your link to create the bootable installer. When I pasted it, it doesn't show any sign of google interference.

How to create a bootable installer for macOS Catalina

Bootable installers are useful in all sorts of situations, like when you need to do a clean installation. Here’s how to create one for macOS Catalina.

macpaw.com

Edit: I forgot to mention the Safari StartPage, and Startpage, are not the same thing, just FYI.

 

[MacInWin]

Edit: I forgot to mention the Safari StartPage, and Startpage, are not the same thing, just FYI.

I know. The OP said he was using StartPage, which is a search app that can become the home page for a browser. The generic term for the default page when the browser is launched is the homepage, not start page. That's why I researched StartPage and looked at the link URL. His issue was not with Safari, but with StartPage, the app.

 

[ferrarr]

For Safari, they have Start Page as the default, in their Settings.



This discussion intrigued me, so I went looking trying to understand how it got on their system. I'm looking through the Startpage Support pages.

Anyway, thanks for taking the time and explaining these things to me.