Salix Firefox 10.0.2 - What is t=salix in DuckDuckGo URL?

[nosaku]

I have recently upgraded to Firefox 10.0.0.2 and I see that the default search engine is now DuckDuckGo (SSL) which is very good. But when I search I see the following extra parameters in the URL.

kj=g - This is for the color of the top bar. Good.
q=search_string - This search string
t=salix - What is this?

Regards,
Satish.

[gapan]

Heh, someone noticed already!

That one is for helping DuckDuckGo to keep track of all search queries that are coming from salix. It's also now used from our start page (http://salixos.org/start). We have very recently entered an agreement with DuckDuckGo and every time you do a search including that option, that search is attributed to salix and a little bit of a little bit of revenue comes our way. It doesn't mess with your search results in any way, it's just a way of telling DuckDuckGo who to thank for, for those searches. And I'm guessing it's also now a way users can thank Salix by using it.

[mimosa]

Is there a way to set this up for other browsers, for instance, Vimprobable?

[gapan]

Vimprobable and midori have been updated on the repos for that too.

And yes, you can do it in any browser, in any operating system. For any browser, the duckduckgo search query is:

Code: Select all

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%s

Where "%s" is the search string. You can make that

Code: Select all

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=salix&q=%s

instead.

[nosaku]

Thanks for the explanation gapan. I use DuckDuckGo because of they don't keep track of who is searching unlike Google. Will this extra string expose any extra details to DuckDuckGo? Is it safer to use? And yes it this is just for a bit of revenue I am fine with it.. but just wanted to clarify before I starting to use the "t=salix" option.

[gapan]

Thanks for the explanation gapan. I use DuckDuckGo because of they don't keep track of who is searching unlike Google. Will this extra string expose any extra details to DuckDuckGo? Is it safer to use? And yes it this is just for a bit of revenue I am fine with it.. but just wanted to clarify before I starting to use the "t=salix" option.

Nothing changes with respect to DuckDuckGo privacy settings and the no-tracking rules. All this does is tell DuckDuckGo that a salix user is making a search query. Nothing else is stored.

[djemos]

Very good work gapan.
Congrats.

[thenktor]

Where "%s" is the search string. You can make that

Code: Select all

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=salix&q=%s

instead.

Changed in my Chrome browsers...

EDIT: How do I change the string for a none Salix Firefox?

[gapan]

If you installed the DuckDuckGo firefox plugin, there should be a duckduckgo-ssl.xml file inside your ~/.mozilla/firefox/random_profile_name/searchplugins/. Open it with a text editor and replace the search template (towards the end) with this:

Code: Select all

<os:Url type="text/html" method="GET" template="https://duckduckgo.com/?kj=g&t=salix&q={searchTerms}">

[thenktor]

Thanks, found it