How to Make Google the Default Search Engine in Microsoft Edge

When Windows 10 rolled out in 2015, it introduced Microsoft Edge, a slick Web browser that Microsoft positioned as the Chrome killer. Well, we all know how that turned out; Edge soared to an amazing 5% market share before crapping out and becoming known as “the browser you use to download Chrome”. Despite its marketplace failure, Edge actually is a pretty decent browser, and that 5% grimly hanging on get a lot of good use out of the browser. One “feature” of Edge is that it uses Microsoft’s own search engine, Bing, as its initial default when searching in the browser’s address bar.

Bing is not a bad search engine by any means, and is often a good backstop when a Google query comes up with anomalous or limited results – occasionally Bing will have something new to add. That said, it’s not the most popular search engine out there, puttering along with a 2.63% market share as of August 2019. Most users – even Edge afficionados – would prefer to have Google as the default. Yet if you open up the settings in Edge and attempt to change the default search engine, it will only list Bing – a conspiracy of silence on the part of Microsoft! No, actually.

Bing uses a search technology called OpenSearch which lets users directly search a variety of non-traditional providers, such as Twitter, Wikipedia, and even site-specific options like Intel. Using OpenSearch is simple. In this article I will show you how to use OpenSearch to set Google as your default search engine in Bing. (If you would rather, you can just have Edge launch directly to the Google home page.)

The Basics: Adding a New Search Provider in Edge

You can add a lot of different sites to your search engine with Bing, but today we’re going to just concentrate on Google. First, use Edge to navigate to www.google.com. This is important, as OpenSearch needs to have visited a web page to understand its applicability to search. Then click the “Setting and more” button (represented as three dots in a horizontal line) at the top-right of the Edge window. In the menu, find and click “Settings”.

Next, click on “Privacy, search, and services.” Scroll to the bottom and select “Address bar search.”

Locate “Search engine used in the address bar.” Click on the dropdown arrow and a list of all the search engines that Bing now supports will show up. Select “Google” from the list to set it as default and there you go – you’ve now changed your default search engine to Google.

How Do I Set Google as My Default Search Engine in Windows 10?

Windows 10 doesn’t have a default search engine; the engine is dependent upon your browser. You can have any number of different browsers installed, and set a different default search engine for each. Just try and keep them straight so that you don’t run queries against Google that you meant to run against Bing. (Do you wonder which search engine really is best, though? Check out our head-to-head review of the big three search engines.)

If you’re a fan of Edge, why not take a look at it on the family of computers it was designed for? The Microsoft Surface Go is a lovely little device and quite affordable.