Cuil Blog

Since Cuil is a small startup company, we all take turns answering support email. When you use our feedback form, one of our engineers will read it personally, and usually respond within a day or two. We read a lot of great suggestions, troubleshoot browser problems, track down bugs, and answer help requests. One of the most common questions I get is about adding Cuil to your browser: “How can I make Cuil the default search engine in Firefox/Safari/IE/Opera…?” I thought I’d provide an answer here, so that more people might come across it.

If you’re not already aware, Cuil provides a search plugin that works with most modern browsers (it’s an OpenSearch plugin, if you’re curious).

There are several ways to add the plugin, and it mainly depends on the browser you have. For Firefox and Internet Explorer 7 (and 8), it couldn’t be any easier. Simply browse to the Cuil homepage and you’ll see a link at the bottom called “Add Cuil to Firefox/Internet Explorer.” Click that and follow the instructions. Make sure to select “Make this my default search provider” or “Start using it right away.” Otherwise Cuil won’t show up in the search box.

For other browsers we’ve put together step-by-step guides for making Cuil the default search engine. These guides are available for the following browsers: Flock, Chrome, Opera, IE7 and Firefox.

Unfortunately, IE6 and Safari do not provide any means to change the default search engine (at least not without some clever hacking). These vendor restrictions are beyond Cuil’s control. However, in these browsers you can still set your homepage to Cuil, which is almost as convenient.

I hope this tidbit was helpful. If you have the Cuil plugin working in a different browser, let us know in the comments. Also, let us know if your browser wasn’t listed.