Something I noticed with google set as default search

You hand-type a URL. You don't always get the URL.

Google doesn't give you the URL. It gives you their "search results" of the URL

which sometimes doesn't contain the actual URL.

I use Firefox with separate URL---search bars set.

(Settings > Search > Add search bar in toolbar)

Right now I use metacrawler as my default search.

(You will need the addon "Add custom search engine" for Firefox to install metacrawler as default)

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You will need a search URL like https://www.metacrawler.com/search?q=%s

or https://www.metacrawler.com/serp?q=%s to install metacrawler as a custom search engine

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metacrawler works best with the addon uBlockOrigin (add blocker) installed