Reviews for Startpage — Private Search Engine
Startpage — Private Search Engine by Startpage
15 reviews
- Rated 2 out of 5by KrZo, 2 months agoOverall it was a really good search engine. However, recently I've been having trouble searching when I use VPN. I usually use VPN via the server location Frankfurt or Berlin in Germany and often also locations in neighboring countries. For some locations the search with Startpage works, but for many locations it has recently stopped working. Either a “blocked” message or just a blank page will appear. But even when I search without a VPN, it happens more and more often that I am blocked with my regular IP address. It's just annoying, so I can't give a good rating anymore. It has worked much better in the past...
Developer response
posted 2 months agoWe're sorry your experience has taken a dip lately. Startpage is subjected to a substantial amount of automated abuse and scraping on a daily basis, which can be very costly financially and in terms of system performance. Accordingly, we have strong anti-abuse measures in place, which we continually work hard to improve. In some instances, normal users will set off one of our rules and be asked to verify they are not a bot.
Our Support team can work with you to release the block(s) on your searches so that this doesn't keep happening. Please don’t hesitate to contact us at support@startpage.com. - Rated 2 out of 5by 1nfered-Data, 3 months agoTo be honest the website itself it great, but the addon sucks. How are you going to make a privacy oriented addon that cannot save my preferences when Private Browsing is enabled by default? Like every time I restart my browser I get defaulted preferences, not cool. Not to mention if I have safe search disabled but use the search bar the addon defaults to Safe Mode (ON) like what? This addon isn't good at all
Developer response
posted 3 months agoThanks for taking the time to leave us your feedback. We're glad you enjoy our service! Apologies for the inconvenience. Our extension does not currently support storing settings, but that's a great suggestion. Given that you are only running Private Browsing windows, if you want your Settings to stick, you'll need to search from the site itself, not the URL bar. Accessing Startpage by bookmarking the Settings URL would be a way to cut down on having to change your settings every time.
https://support.startpage.com/hc/en-us/articles/4616244515476
Thanks for caring about privacy. Feel free to contact us at support@startpage.com to discuss other potential workarounds. - Rated 2 out of 5by Firefox user 12362774, a year agoLief lange Zeit gut. Seit neustem werde ich in 9/10 Fällen auf https://www.startpage.com/errors/ weitergeleitet.
Developer response
posted 10 months agoVielen Dank für Ihre Bewertung.
Bitte stellen Sie sicher, dass Sie die URL www.startpage.com aufrufen. Wenn Sie Startpage als Lesezeichen oder Startseite gespeichert haben, empfehlen wir Ihnen, zu überprüfen, dass Sie eine aktuelle URL verwenden. Für weitere Fragen wenden Sie sich gerne an support@startpage.com. - Rated 2 out of 5by Firefox user 14300730, 2 years ago
- Rated 2 out of 5by Firefox user 13240822, 2 years agoje ne comprend pas pourquoi ajouter un module juste pour avoir la recherche ???
- Rated 2 out of 5by GunDar, 3 years ago
- Rated 2 out of 5by Firefox user 13947734, 3 years agoLeute wie lautet der Parameter für den Suchstring? Ich Brauch doch kein Addon dafür, welches zudem nicht kompatibel (FFAndroid) ist!
Das ist ein Fail-Schlag
To find add-ons compatible with Firefox for Android, click here. - Rated 2 out of 5by JfmbLinux, 4 years agoDans l’ensemble pas trop mal, mais je suis déçu qu’il me demande de l’installer alors que c’est déjà fait.
En ce qui concerne les Préférences, une fois modifié, enregistré il ne les conserve pas du tout, quand on redémarre Firefox tout est remis par défaut.
Je songe à m'en débarrasser et voir ce que je peux trouver, mais certainement pas Qwant par contre. - Rated 2 out of 5by Firefox user 14172049, 4 years ago
- Rated 2 out of 5by hormonella, 4 years agoLove the add-on. But in the latest version it suddenly need access to all my tabs. Would give it 5 stars if they gave any reason for it.
Developer response
posted 4 years agoThank you for using Startpage. The request to view tabs is only applicable in the initial install process, in order to pass a marketing page URL from add.startpage.com to confirm a successful installation. However, to enable that feature, we had to request users allow access to the tabs. Once install is complete, we NEVER look at your tabs, so we are actively pursuing other options to grab that URL without needing access to tabs. - Rated 2 out of 5by Firefox user 15253770, 4 years agoIf Start Page has made searching private with no one tracking me why is it that Tripadvisor showed 'recommended for you - art lovers' just after I had been searching art galleries?
Developer response
posted 4 years agoHello and thanks for using Startpage. We never save or share personal data of any search AND if you view a website using Anonymous View, the website will only see that Startpage has been there, not you. The only way that a website will be able to track you is if you click on an Ad within your search results. It is important to know that all Ads on Startpage are purely contextual advertising, meaning that they are based on your exact search terms NOT your past search or browsing history; therefore, more likely to be helpful versus manipulative. Perhaps you clicked on an Ad or searched using a different source other than Startpage? - Rated 2 out of 5by Firefox user 15080216, 4 years agoExcellent, however less stars because, as others already commented, search customization is not available in the extension, which is necessary if cookies are deleted at restart/not saved at all.
Please add this functionality to the GUI of the add-on. Thank you.
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Here is a way to do it manually, however with many caveats (no updates, search string not changeable, modifying the extension):
1) create a searchstring on https://www.startpage.com/search/settings
2) copy the string starting with "?prfh="
3) install the startpage add-on, close Firefox and navigate to your profile folder where the extensions are stored (usually something like: "userdata directory"/mozilla/firefox/"profilename.default"/extensions )
4) copy {20fc2e06-e3e4-4b2b-812b-ab431220cada}.xpi and open the copy with an archive program (alternatively rename it to .zip, then open)
5) open manifest.json
6) Look for the line "search_url": and delete everything after "dsearch?query={searchTerms}&" and add your personal string starting with "?prfh=" to it.
7) the string should look similar to this: https://www.startpage.com/do/dsearch?query={searchTerms}&prfh=enable_stay_controlEEE0N1NsuggestionsEEE1N1Ngeo_mapEEE1N1Nwikipedia_iaEEE1N1Nother_iaEEE1N1Ndisable_open_in_new_windowEEE0N1Ndisable_video_family_filterEEE1N1Nenable_post_methodEEE1N1Nenable_proxy_safety_suggestEEE1N1Ndisable_family_filterEEE1N1Nconnect_to_serverEEEeuN1NsslEEE1N1Nlanguage_uiEEEenglishN1NlanguageEEEenglishN1Nwt_unitEEEcelsiusN1Nnum_of_resultsEEE20N1Nlang_homepageEEEs/default/en/
8) save it (rename the zip to xpi again)
10) start Firefox and uninstall the startpage add-on
Technically we have a working add-on now. However Firefox disabled unsigned add-ons for security reasons. So the add-on can't be installed.
9) navigate to "about:debugging#addons" and click "Load temporary Add-on". Now you can add your newly created extension and see if you did everything right.
10) However after each restart of Firefox the extension will be deleted. There are multiple ways to prevent this, however none is really secure/ideal. I chose to upload the new add-on as private add-on here https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/developers/addon/submit/ . This signs the add-on officially by Firefox and only let's you download it instead of making it available for others too.
11) Disable updates to the extension. (As nothing got modified in the package except the url, i am unsure how the add-on will behave if there is a new update from startpage. Either it won't install or the private search string will probably be deleted.)
12) Check regularly for the official extension to be updated and include this functionality. This workaround is not ideal, as it is unfair towards the developers to use a modified version of their extension