Solved Why are my searches redirected to "goo-now.com", then to bing?

[Alegria]

You can see here that I know where to set my default search engine

That said the checked box to set as default doesn't remember being checked and I can do it 20 times, still nothing.
I'm used to typing what I want to search directly in the address bar, and usually it goes straight to google... until a recent update.

[Pathduck]

@Alegria Because you have added some kind of scammy extension and you have allowed it to control your searches.

Maybe "YT Watch Later Assist"?
Or maybe "F Magic"?
Or maybe "Dark Theme for Google Translate"?

There are many extensions that does this.
Please exercise caution when installing shady extensions.
https://www.google.com/search?q=smart+search+"goo-now.com"

"To compensate the developer effort we have added monetized search, which means this extension may change your default search engine to Bing or gsmartsearch.com (Google powered search)."

In fact, you can see it in your screenshot, right there:

Click that, see what extension it is.
Remove the extension.
Uncheck "Allow control by extension".

Don't install crap extensions.
Read extension reviews before installing.
Look at number of users - if few users, most likely a scam.
Report shady extensions to Google.

[TbGbe]

@Alegria The url is incorrect. You need to add the search parameters (also for image search if you use that).

You may also need to add them for your other searches so refer to:
https://forum.vivaldi.net/topic/46609/guide-vivaldi-search-engines-collection

[Pathduck]

@Alegria Because you have added some kind of scammy extension and you have allowed it to control your searches.

Maybe "YT Watch Later Assist"?
Or maybe "F Magic"?
Or maybe "Dark Theme for Google Translate"?

There are many extensions that does this.
Please exercise caution when installing shady extensions.
https://www.google.com/search?q=smart+search+"goo-now.com"

"To compensate the developer effort we have added monetized search, which means this extension may change your default search engine to Bing or gsmartsearch.com (Google powered search)."

In fact, you can see it in your screenshot, right there:

Click that, see what extension it is.
Remove the extension.
Uncheck "Allow control by extension".

Don't install crap extensions.
Read extension reviews before installing.
Look at number of users - if few users, most likely a scam.
Report shady extensions to Google.

[Alegria]

it has to be Dark Theme for Google Translate, I added it not long ago, thanks I had no idea.

[Pathduck]

@Alegria It helps to read the angry reviews before installing extensions

Also, as pointed out by @TbGbe earlier; your search URL for Google is wrong, the correct URL is:
https://www.google.com/search?q=%s
With a Suggest URL of:
https://www.google.com/complete/search?client=chrome&q=%s

[Alegria]

@Pathduck will do, also the only comment was a 5 stars "it works amazing"

[Blackbird]

@Alegria said in Why are my searches redirected to "goo-now.com", then to bing?:

... the only comment was a 5 stars "it works amazing"

FYI, when you see anything with only one or two reviews, all positive, one should immediately suspect that they may not be from real-world users/customers. Just sayin'...