# Scroogle?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scroogle/511938>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 29, 2009, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scroogle/511938 "2009-09-29T02:06:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\
**Post date:** [September 29, 2009, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scroogle/511938/1 "2009-09-29T02:06:45Z")

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I noticed the other day that my Firefox browser has a search bar entitled “Scroogle,” whose icon is a G with a strike through. It’s possible that it’s been there forever and, being somewhat dim, I’m only noticing it now, but I’m pretty sure it’s new. I do know for a fact that I never installed it.

Searching around the internet, it appears that it’s a legitimate search engine, catering to the more data-paranoid members of the online community. Which is fine, except, again, I didn’t install it. And I can’t see how to _un_install it. It doesn’t show up in the add-ons menu for Firefox. Is this something that’s been baked into the browser at some point? Or is there something more insidious going on here?

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**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\
**Post date:** [September 29, 2009, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scroogle/511938/2 "2009-09-29T02:21:41Z")

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> [@Miller](#):
>
> I noticed the other day that my Firefox browser has a search bar entitled “Scroogle,” whose icon is a G with a strike through. It’s possible that it’s been there forever and, being somewhat dim, I’m only noticing it now, but I’m pretty sure it’s new. I do know for a fact that I never installed it.
> 
> Searching around the internet, it appears that it’s a legitimate search engine, catering to the more data-paranoid members of the online community. Which is fine, except, again, I didn’t install it. And I can’t see how to _un_install it. It doesn’t show up in the add-ons menu for Firefox. Is this something that’s been baked into the browser at some point? Or is there something more insidious going on here?

Did you try looking under _Manage Search Engines_ (in the dropdown menu you get if you click the little arrow to the left of the search bar)?

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**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\
**Post date:** [September 29, 2009, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scroogle/511938/3 "2009-09-29T02:26:31Z")

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Ahh. Missed that. Thanks!

Well, question answered, and since I’m the OP and a mod (mua-ha-ha-ha!) I guess I’ll go ahead and close this.

Thanks again.