The old version of this post was a tidy list with a bad URL and a fantasy app.
It told you to add https://oernoe.com/search?q=%s. That path 404s on the main site. Search lives on its own host.
It told mobile users to install the upcoming Oernoe Search app from the Play Store. Late August 2026: I cannot send you to a store listing we shipped. The April post said June–July. That window closed. Use the mobile browser.
Here's the version I can stand behind.
## The URL you actually want
Search: https://search.oernoe.com
A custom engine in Chromium browsers wants a pattern with %s where the query goes. Use:
https://search.oernoe.com/?q=%s
If we later document a different official pattern on the Search host itself, believe that page over this one. Patterns change. 404s don't lie.
You can try the box without making an account. Do that first. Defaulting a browser is a bigger deal than a one-off query. Live with the results for a few days. Then switch the default if you still want it.
## Chrome or Edge on a computer
Open settings. Search engine. Manage search engines and site search.
Add a site search. Name it Oernoe. The URL is https://search.oernoe.com/?q=%s
Then set it as default.
Chrome's labels move every year. If you can't find "manage search engines," search inside settings for "search engine." I am not going to screenshot a menu that will be wrong next month.
If Oernoe appears in the list after you visit Search, you can pick it without the add step. If it doesn't, add it. If it still doesn't work, the tab you tested will tell you faster than a comment section.
## Firefox
Settings, Search. You can add a search shortcut from the official docs Firefox publishes. The same %s pattern applies.
Firefox also lets you change the default from the address-bar search icon on some versions. Look at the icon. Don't fight the page.
If you're on a work Firefox that locks the default, that's your admin, not us. Use search.oernoe.com as a bookmark and stop fighting a policy.
## Safari
Safari does not treat random custom engines the way Chrome does. On a Mac you may be stuck with the list Apple gives you, plus extensions you actually trust.
I will not tell you to install a random extension from a person you don't know just to force a default. Bookmark https://search.oernoe.com. Make it a favorite. Use it on purpose.
On iPhone, the story is similar. Safari's default engine list is short. If Oernoe isn't in it, that's Apple's list, not a moral failing on your part. Use the site. Or use a browser that lets you add a custom engine.
## Android, without the missing app
Open Chrome. Settings. Search engine.
If Oernoe is in the list because you visited Search, pick it. If it isn't, you may need to add a custom engine the same way as desktop, or just bookmark the host.
Do not wait for a Play Store icon from that April post. Until there is a listing we can link, the mobile web is the product.
If you use Firefox on Android, you usually have more room to add a custom engine. Same URL pattern.
## What defaulting actually changes
The address bar. New-tab search boxes. Some right-click "search for this" actions.
It does not change your account. It does not move your Drive files. It does not hide you from the rest of the internet. Sites you click still see you as a visitor to those sites.
It does not make the publisher pages on www.oernoe.com stop showing ads. Those are different hosts. Search is built so queries aren't used to build an ad profile. The journal can still serve contextual Google ads. Read https://www.oernoe.com/legal/privacy if that mix bothers you.
## Try before you marry it
Spend a week with Search as a tab, not a default. Run the queries you already run.
Shopping. Local hours. A programming error. A health question you would have asked anyway. A news event.
I will not tell you we win all of those. I don't have a scoreboard I'm willing to print. If Google wins shopping, that's allowed. You can still send the medical query here. Mixed use is normal.
If the first page is consistently worse for your life, don't default. Bookmark us for the queries you like. That's a fine outcome.
## Work computers and school computers
You may not have permission to change the default. Don't break a policy for a journal post. Use a bookmark. Use a personal browser profile if your rules allow it.
Don't type your Oernoe password into a shared profile that ten students use. That's how accounts get borrowed.
## When the default "doesn't work"
You added the URL wrong. Missing https. Missing %s. Extra spaces.
You're on www.oernoe.com/search, which 404s.
The company VPN is unhappy. Try without it once, then don't draw a grand conclusion from a cafe.
Search the host is down. Check Tracker. https://tracker.oernoe.com
Then Support if Tracker is quiet and your pattern still fails. https://support.oernoe.com
## Why this post needed a rewrite
The first version ended with a line about a clean interface and privacy-focused results every time. That's marketing leftover. Results vary. The interface is quieter than some. Quiet is not the same as complete.
It also pointed at an app that isn't a thing I can install today. Leaving that instruction up after July would have been the same class of error as leaving a Mail launch month on a page after summer moved.
Same slug. Same published date. New instructions.
If you already added the old 404 URL, delete that engine and add the search.oernoe.com pattern. Then do one query from the address bar and confirm the host in the location field. If you don't see search.oernoe.com, you didn't default what you think you did.
## Other browsers, quickly
Brave and other Chromium forks usually copy Chrome's search-engine manager. Same add dialog. Same %s. If a fork hides the manager, use their docs, not a guess from me.
Opera has moved that setting more than once. Search inside settings for "search engine." If you can't add a custom one, bookmark.
DuckDuckGo's browser is its own opinion. I'm not going to write a fight scene. If that browser won't add us, use ours in another app.
## A note on "make this default" popups
If we ever show a popup that yells at you to default, you can ignore it. A default should feel like a choice you made after a week of tabs, not a banner. I would rather you stay on a bookmark than resent the address bar.
If some other site tells you to download an "Oernoe helper" executable to set the default, don't. That's not how this works. That's a classic junk-software move. We are a URL and a settings dialog.
## After you switch
Do a query that you will recognize. Your own name plus a word you never search. Confirm the results page host. Then do a normal query.
If you hate it on day two, switch back. Switching back is not a breakup. It's a browser setting.
If you like it except for one kind of query, keep a bookmark to the other engine for that kind. Adults do this. The internet is not a loyalty program.
That's the whole procedure. Right host, %s, no store listing, no 404 path, no fake app. If those four stay true, this post can age a little without turning into fiction.
It told you to add https://oernoe.com/search?q=%s. That path 404s on the main site. Search lives on its own host.
It told mobile users to install the upcoming Oernoe Search app from the Play Store. Late August 2026: I cannot send you to a store listing we shipped. The April post said June–July. That window closed. Use the mobile browser.
Here's the version I can stand behind.
## The URL you actually want
Search: https://search.oernoe.com
A custom engine in Chromium browsers wants a pattern with %s where the query goes. Use:
https://search.oernoe.com/?q=%s
If we later document a different official pattern on the Search host itself, believe that page over this one. Patterns change. 404s don't lie.
You can try the box without making an account. Do that first. Defaulting a browser is a bigger deal than a one-off query. Live with the results for a few days. Then switch the default if you still want it.
## Chrome or Edge on a computer
Open settings. Search engine. Manage search engines and site search.
Add a site search. Name it Oernoe. The URL is https://search.oernoe.com/?q=%s
Then set it as default.
Chrome's labels move every year. If you can't find "manage search engines," search inside settings for "search engine." I am not going to screenshot a menu that will be wrong next month.
If Oernoe appears in the list after you visit Search, you can pick it without the add step. If it doesn't, add it. If it still doesn't work, the tab you tested will tell you faster than a comment section.
## Firefox
Settings, Search. You can add a search shortcut from the official docs Firefox publishes. The same %s pattern applies.
Firefox also lets you change the default from the address-bar search icon on some versions. Look at the icon. Don't fight the page.
If you're on a work Firefox that locks the default, that's your admin, not us. Use search.oernoe.com as a bookmark and stop fighting a policy.
## Safari
Safari does not treat random custom engines the way Chrome does. On a Mac you may be stuck with the list Apple gives you, plus extensions you actually trust.
I will not tell you to install a random extension from a person you don't know just to force a default. Bookmark https://search.oernoe.com. Make it a favorite. Use it on purpose.
On iPhone, the story is similar. Safari's default engine list is short. If Oernoe isn't in it, that's Apple's list, not a moral failing on your part. Use the site. Or use a browser that lets you add a custom engine.
## Android, without the missing app
Open Chrome. Settings. Search engine.
If Oernoe is in the list because you visited Search, pick it. If it isn't, you may need to add a custom engine the same way as desktop, or just bookmark the host.
Do not wait for a Play Store icon from that April post. Until there is a listing we can link, the mobile web is the product.
If you use Firefox on Android, you usually have more room to add a custom engine. Same URL pattern.
## What defaulting actually changes
The address bar. New-tab search boxes. Some right-click "search for this" actions.
It does not change your account. It does not move your Drive files. It does not hide you from the rest of the internet. Sites you click still see you as a visitor to those sites.
It does not make the publisher pages on www.oernoe.com stop showing ads. Those are different hosts. Search is built so queries aren't used to build an ad profile. The journal can still serve contextual Google ads. Read https://www.oernoe.com/legal/privacy if that mix bothers you.
## Try before you marry it
Spend a week with Search as a tab, not a default. Run the queries you already run.
Shopping. Local hours. A programming error. A health question you would have asked anyway. A news event.
I will not tell you we win all of those. I don't have a scoreboard I'm willing to print. If Google wins shopping, that's allowed. You can still send the medical query here. Mixed use is normal.
If the first page is consistently worse for your life, don't default. Bookmark us for the queries you like. That's a fine outcome.
## Work computers and school computers
You may not have permission to change the default. Don't break a policy for a journal post. Use a bookmark. Use a personal browser profile if your rules allow it.
Don't type your Oernoe password into a shared profile that ten students use. That's how accounts get borrowed.
## When the default "doesn't work"
You added the URL wrong. Missing https. Missing %s. Extra spaces.
You're on www.oernoe.com/search, which 404s.
The company VPN is unhappy. Try without it once, then don't draw a grand conclusion from a cafe.
Search the host is down. Check Tracker. https://tracker.oernoe.com
Then Support if Tracker is quiet and your pattern still fails. https://support.oernoe.com
## Why this post needed a rewrite
The first version ended with a line about a clean interface and privacy-focused results every time. That's marketing leftover. Results vary. The interface is quieter than some. Quiet is not the same as complete.
It also pointed at an app that isn't a thing I can install today. Leaving that instruction up after July would have been the same class of error as leaving a Mail launch month on a page after summer moved.
Same slug. Same published date. New instructions.
If you already added the old 404 URL, delete that engine and add the search.oernoe.com pattern. Then do one query from the address bar and confirm the host in the location field. If you don't see search.oernoe.com, you didn't default what you think you did.
## Other browsers, quickly
Brave and other Chromium forks usually copy Chrome's search-engine manager. Same add dialog. Same %s. If a fork hides the manager, use their docs, not a guess from me.
Opera has moved that setting more than once. Search inside settings for "search engine." If you can't add a custom one, bookmark.
DuckDuckGo's browser is its own opinion. I'm not going to write a fight scene. If that browser won't add us, use ours in another app.
## A note on "make this default" popups
If we ever show a popup that yells at you to default, you can ignore it. A default should feel like a choice you made after a week of tabs, not a banner. I would rather you stay on a bookmark than resent the address bar.
If some other site tells you to download an "Oernoe helper" executable to set the default, don't. That's not how this works. That's a classic junk-software move. We are a URL and a settings dialog.
## After you switch
Do a query that you will recognize. Your own name plus a word you never search. Confirm the results page host. Then do a normal query.
If you hate it on day two, switch back. Switching back is not a breakup. It's a browser setting.
If you like it except for one kind of query, keep a bookmark to the other engine for that kind. Adults do this. The internet is not a loyalty program.
That's the whole procedure. Right host, %s, no store listing, no 404 path, no fake app. If those four stay true, this post can age a little without turning into fiction.
O
Oernoe Editorial Team
Technology experts committed to building privacy-first solutions and helping users understand how digital services work. Passionate about creating transparent, ethical platforms.
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