In principle I agree, but there needs to be an “old person mode.” The number of times I’ve uninstalled malware on my relatives’ computers is astounding.

Wouldn’t that be the current system that presents a static list of search engine? I think we are just asking for a way to go to settings and add a custom url and parameter for a non-predefined search option.

Somehow, my father in law managed to set some sketchy search engine as his default. I forget exactly what it was, but it was definitely serving malware ads.

I’d prefer a static list for those people.

I could write a book on the crazy stuff he has done to his iOS devices. I’ve contemplated putting “child mode” or whatever on his account to prevent him from changing settings or installing apps.

My favorite so far was a malware VPN that was harvesting ALL of his traffic.

I haven’t opened Safari recently but I’m pretty sure Safari in general just doesn’t have user defined search engine lists at all on any platform and never has. There’s ways to hack it with extensions, but otherwise if you want to switch SEs, you can use one on Apple’s list or you switch to a browser with more flexibility on iPhone, Mac or iPad.

Of course since one of the options in Safari is DuckDuckGo, you can also use its extensive list of !bang operators.