How to change search engine's icon, if possible?
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Hi,
I'd like to use a different icon for a search engine listed in the search bar. How can I do that if it's possible?
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With those JS codes, the target favicon does change to what I want, but changes again back to the favicon sent by the search engine site after I visited it.
I also find that the new favicon file does need to be coverted to a data URI because Vivaldi does not accept the FILE:// protocol for pointing to a locally stored favicon.
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@drkh Yeah, thatโs unfortunately a recent development, it used to be permanent. I currently have three modded search engine icons which stay that way, but it might be the original ones donโt load for them in the first place and therefore they stick. So you can do something about empty ones, but not ugly ones.
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The favicon URL is just an entry in the
Web Data
SQLite database file. So in theory you might be able to use a base64-encodeddata://
URL there, but I've never tried. And I suspect it will be overwritten with the favicon of the results page when triggered.I've just used it to fix some stubborn icons for engines that wouldn't work.
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OK. Anyway, it's still very good to learn a way to back up search engines.
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Tried that after reading your post, but to no avail.
After replacing the original favicon_url cell data, which is an HTTPS address, with the base64-encoded data URI of the favicon I want, I opened Vivaldi (5.3.2679.68) when disconnected from Internet, only to find that the HTTPS address was restored! I guess that Vivaldi gurards the 'Web Data' file, and there may be a copy of the original favicon_url cell data stored somewhere else.
The 'Web Data' file I am mentioning is in the 'User Data/Default' folder. Only that 'Web Data' file contains the search engine that I myself have added and whose favicon I want to change.
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@drkh Hi - good on you to at least try
I know favicons are also cached as bitmaps (BLOB) in the
Favicons
DB file, and possibly there's a mapping using thefavicon_url
as a key.I know it's possible to replace the icons in Favicons, you can change the BLOB image - but I think it won't be permanent, it's only a cache.
Maybe it doesn't like data urls. One solution could be to upload your ico somewhere on the net, or use one already available. Visit it once to make sure it's cached. Then change the url mapping pointing to the new url. But again, not sure it's permanent... these data files are not really meant to be edited directly
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I made a test.
I replaced the target favicon currently residing in the 'Favicons' SQLite data base file with a new one of my own choice (can be done by just loading it from the local computer). I also changed the favicon_url cell data in the 'Web Data' file to the data URI of the new favicon.
Then I used Vivaldi to open the web site. The new favicon stayed there. But the next time Vivaldi started, the old favicon came back.
I also tried using an HTTPS web address of the new favicon in the favicon_url cell data, instead of a data URI. But again, once I visited the web site, the old favicon came back as well.
So, your guess is right.
Thank you, still, for providing guidance. It was pretty interesting experience.
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@drkh I guess I'm misunderstanding something, since I'm looking in Web Data with DB Browser for SQLite and this is as close as I'm getting to any URLs:
https://i.imgur.com/JJzHw7E.pngThe reason I'm looking into this is that roughly half of my search engine icons went missing a few versions ago and it's annoying.
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@rseiler
Hi, the favicon should updated if you open the search page again. I use "Search with" from the context menu for it.Cheers, mib
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@mib2berlin Yes, they definitely should, and they do for bookmark favicons (which don't have this problem, but I mean for ones that I'm visiting for the first time), but the problem search ones don't.
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@rseiler
Hm, I add Brave search engine to Vivaldi:
No icon, one search from context menu later:
It seams something is blocking catch favicons on your system, as I always guess: ExtensionsCheers, mib
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I guess I'm misunderstanding something, since I'm looking in Web Data with DB Browser for SQLite and this is as close as I'm getting to any URLs:
You need to choose "Browse Data" and then select the table.
You can then edit the value of the
favicon_url
column. Remember to click Apply and save the database.Never do this with Vivaldi open - or make a copy of
Web Data
first, edit the copy, then overwrite the original file (with Vivaldi closed first). Always make backups just in case.As said already, the icon should show up after the first use of the engine. If it doesn't maybe you're doing something non-standard? Are you doing this in a private window for example.
Also note that this will only work for the engines where Vivaldi for some reason cannot retrieve the icon. If it does retrieve it, it will overwrite the value you changed on engine use.
Please also give the URL you're using for these search engines missing icons.
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@Pathduck Wow, that browse step in the UI is subtle, thanks.
To pick various examples of the problem ones, a few simply have a blank favicon_url field, such as:
Whether the field for those was always blank I don't know, but I do know that before v5 1 or v5.2 the icons displayed somehow.
But most are examples where there is a favicom_url field but it's somehow not working despite valid URLs (maybe that's the overwrite that you mentioned):
- Ebay: https://www.ebay.com/favicon.ico
- Justwatch: https://www.justwatch.com/appassets/favicon.ico
- Azlyrics: https://search.azlyrics.com/favicon.ico
- Maclookup: https://maclookup.app/img/ico/favicon.ico
- Spotify: https://open.spotifycdn.com/cdn/images/favicon.5cb2bd30.ico
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/s/desktop/25bf5aae/img/favicon_32x32.png
- AbuseIP: https://www.abuseipdb.com/favicon.ico
- Onelook: https://onelook.com/favicon.ico
- Opensubtitles: https://www.opensubtitles.org/favicon.ico
Note: In some cases among the above there is no icon at all, but in most there is one but it's just a default white icon. Either way it's a problem.
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@rseiler Yeah, the Amazon icons is something I've had problems with as well, no idea what's up with those. They seem to come and go for unknown reasons.
I currently have:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/favicon.ico
https://www.amazon.com/favicon.ico
I don't really go in and edit these icons all the time. Like I said I only used it for some icons that refused to work correctly. Most engine icons (I have 60 or so) work just fine. But sometimes they disappear.
Some users have mentioned they disappear after doing searches in Private windows, but I've not tested that as I hardly ever use those.
Looks like most of those icons are indeed valid but some are obviously also "cached" from the CDN containing random strings that might change at any time (YouTube, Spotif).
I could try adding some of those engines myself, that's why I asked for the search URLs you use. I'm not going to spend time figuring out the URLs for all those engines
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@rseiler
Hi again, something is blocking it on your system.
As usual, you can test this only in a clean profile.
The last icon is from Amazon.com search.Cheers, mib
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something is blocking it on your system
I don't think it's that simple. There is definitely something up with some search engine icons that seem to disappear more often than others.
I did a quick test, closed Vivaldi, opened a Private window and did a search, after that it disappeared:
Looking in the Web Data file, the
favicon_url
has a blank value for Amazon.I'm thinking it's either something to do with doing searches in Private windows, but I almost never do that.
I also notice my search URLs for Amazon are a bit outdated - there is a redirect going on.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/search?keywords=test
=>
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=test
So that might cause Vivaldi to not be able to get the favicon in all cases either. So I'll just change it to the new URL and see if it happens again.
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@Pathduck
Good find and I can reproduce it if I search with Amazon search in a private window. As you do I never use private windows, only for testing, therefore my icons raerly dissapear.
@rseiler I am sorry, this seams to be a bug and not the usual suspects.
Do you use private windows in your work flow?Cheers, mib
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@mib2berlin Thanks, everyone. I'm going to try some experimentation and perhaps try removing one entirely (from Vivaldi), adding it back, and (assuming that even works) seeing what happens over time for that one.
I, too, very rarely use private windows, and when I do I don't recall it being for searches. At most it would have been one or two search engines, not 10 or 15, so unless the problem spreads across ones you haven't even used in private mode, I'm not sure how that could be it, though clearly it might be reproducible (as shown above) for individual ones.