Recently released Chrome 97 came with a quiet change where it is no longer possible to remove default search engines. Google hid the delete option intentionally as part of the Search engines’ settings page makeover. After users uproar, the company recently promised it will restore the option in UI and it will appear in Chrome 98 or Chrome 99 stable versions. The change has been now entered into Canary 99 now.
Here is what happened:
Chrome update removes the delete option from default search engines
Users who upgraded to Chrome version 97 noticed the preinstalled Search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, and Ecosia that the browser comes with are no longer deletable.
“My search engine keeps changing to Yahoo. I’ve tried to remove the search engines on setting in chrome, but it doesn’t work since there is no delete button under the 3 dots. How can I fix this issue? I have also resetted settings and cleared my computer to try to find any malware” one user reports in the Chrome help forum. Others in the thread confirmed they’re facing the same issue with Chrome.
Google employee, Justin Donnelly chimed in and said it was a mistake on his part without realizing the option in UI being used to workaround to prevent search engine hijacking. The intention behind the change is to avoid the accidental removal of built-in search engines.
Delete option restored for built-in Search engines in Chrome
In a related Chrome bug that talks about “deleting pre-populated search engines it is too easy “, Chrome employee reverted the change and reinstated the delete option for built-in search engines.
“Deletion is being used by some people as a workaround to block unwanted changes to which search engine is default so we should continue to support it for now. ”
Going forward, Chrome will display a confirmation dialog when users attempt to delete built-in search engines. This helps to avoid accidental deletions as well as allows users to intentionally remove them.
If you now visit chrome://settings/searchEngines in the latest Chrome 99 Canary, you’ll notice the “delete” option in the 3 dot menu under the “Default search engines” section for the search engines other than the default, in addition, to “Make default” and “Edit”.
So the default SEs may get deletable again in Chrome 98 releasing on Feb 1 or Chrome 99 scheduled to arrive on Mar 1, this year.
The change affected Microsoft Edge also. So you should expect the delete option to return in case of built-in search engines in Edge browser also in versions 98 or 99.
How badly are you affected by this? If so, why you’re removing SE in the first place? Let us know in the comments below.
More about Chrome:
Chrome 97 for Windows boosts Security and Memory
Chrome is bringing downloads icon to the toolbar
Chrome to widely use Windows Accent Color in its browser UI
Chrome Tab Search to help in finding Media Tabs
