Shut off Open Search additions to "Other search engines" by default

Test plan

1. Fresh profile
2. Visit brave://settings/search
3. Verify that the new Index other search engines preference is showing and is turned OFF by default
4. Visit a few sites (amazon.com, homedepot.com bestbuy.com) and search
5. Verify they DO NOT show up under Other search engines on brave://settings/searchEngines
6. Visit brave://settings/search
7. Enable the Index other search engines setting
8. Visit sites from step 4
9. Verify the sites DO show up under Other search engines on brave://settings/searchEngines

Description

As I browse, additional entries are silently inserted into Other search engines periodically. There is no notice that I can see. As far as I can tell, I have no opportunity to consent to this settings manipulation. As a user, even after reasonable inquiry, I have no idea that this is happening, much less how, or how to stop it.

Users should be empowered to turn this off, and I would argue it should be off by default. I should not have to manually and continually poll brave://settings/searchEngines to “discover” new or reappearing entires only to have to manually remove (and re-remove) them.

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Also originally reported with this issue: ~Despite_ me deleting them every single time I notice their presence, Bing and Google are re-added to my Default search engines list. I haven’t done enough testing to figure out what triggers this (i.e., whether it’s upgrading Brave, relaunching it, or navigating to certain pages, etc.), but it keeps happening. This is disturbing, since I’ve signaled an intent that they should not appear. They should only come back if I signal intent to restore the default settings or add them explicitly.~ UPDATE: I will file a separate issue to track this when I observe it again and can provide more details.

[UjCbFwtBayFM]

I already said it but I guess I need to repeat it: first I want an option to have it enabled when I install or update it, or at bare minimum have a prompt so I can choose if I want website to be able to use this function. If you’re able to have user permission prompt for things like location and stuff, you can do the same for OpenSearch. Second I want it to stay enabled. I don’t want to have to re-add every single search engine I use every single time I open Brave. Try adding manually 30+ engines multiple times per week, monitor how much time you’ll waste on that. I’d also love for Brave Search to not be set as default engine at every start-up Or should I go back to Chrome?

[posita]

As someone who does fresh installs on a regular basis this is a terrible change, how do you switch back it on by default?

Does “do[ing] fresh installs” mean that you are wiping settings as well? Or are you saying that this setting is not being preserved for you between updates/installs?

You can switch it on manually if you really like the feature, but it doesn’t sound like that’s what you want? It sounds like what you want is the old behavior (i.e., allow arbitrary sites to install arbitrary search engines without notice to the user). I’m pretty confident that behavior is antithetical to prioritizing privacy and security, so I think it’s appropriate to have it off by default.