How to enable search engine added by plugins

[rbhanot4739]

Hello,

I installed the Glean browser extension. This plugin adds its own search engine prefixed with gl.

The plugin and its added search engine work fine in Firefox where if I type gl in the address bar, it would start showing search suggestions, and then hitting enter on the selected entry opens it in a new tab.

I am not seeing this behavior with Zen where if I type gl in the address bar, it would show the suggestions, but when I select any entry and hit enter, nothing happens at all, it literally stays on the new tab page.

I am using the latest version with 1.14.9b (Firefox 141.0) (aarch64)

[dosubot[bot]]

Zen Browser currently has known limitations with search engines added by extensions, especially those accessed via keyword shortcuts like gl. The search engine selector in the URL bar was removed, which affects both built-in and plugin-added search engines. Some users have found that setting browser.urlbar.scotchBonnet.enableOverride to true in about:config can restore the search engine dropdown, but this may break new tab functionality. Another setting, zen.urlbar.hide-one-offs, controls whether search engine buttons appear; setting it to false can help with engine selection. However, even with these tweaks, there are ongoing issues and no guaranteed fix for plugin-added search engines working exactly as they do in Firefox. These limitations are known and have been discussed by other users as well citation citation.

If you want to experiment, try toggling those two settings in about:config, but be aware of possible side effects. There is currently no official or fully reliable workaround for enabling full support for extension-added search engines in Zen.

To reply, just mention @dosu.

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