alt Hacker NewsWild that I can't use Kagi in Safari on iOS, where my search options are still locked down to three~four Apple-approved choices, of which at least one is just a multi-billion-dollar paid product placement.
(Yes, I know about the extension that hijacks your searches to redirect them to Kagi, but how is that an acceptable state of affairs?)
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I was completely surprised as soon as I read your post that you couldn't add search engines on safari, and then I was completely unsurprised a moment later.
This upsets me as well. I’ve sent Apple feedback[0] about it, I suggest others do the same.
I wanted to use Safari at work, but this proved too big of a barrier. I can’t use the App Store at work, so no extensions. I was more willing to give up Safari than Kagi.
IIRC all are product placement/ads. Listing requires paying Apple.
Wild that my Huawei phone running Harmony OS allows to you customize the search engines in the default browser and iOS does not.
Move to Japan?
Since search engines are queried with a URL with a parameter for the search term, browsers could simply allow "power users" to enter a custom URL. Voilà — support for every imaginable search engine and they can still make their billion dollar deals for providing default search engines. That's how Firefox does it.