Why do we need an extra permission simply for starting a search?

[rugkx (rugk)]

Thanks for the reply.

So yes, I actually did not think about the fact that you can obviously get out the user’s default search engine if you trigger a search and then read the URL. (which requires the activeTab permission, but as that is only granted on click on a browserAction or so, maybe actually rather the tabs permission, anyway.)

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Also, maybe it helps a little to see, why I want to do so. Basically it’s just a little workaround/fallback, which IMHO justifies no extra permission in my use case:

Omnibox: Can we disable it?/Offer opt-in/opt-out

If you use the omnibox API you can only statically define a string that is used. That would be quite okay, alone. However, what is worse is that I cannot disable it! Even the default search suggestion can only be overwritten, by default it shows the add-on name. My use case In my add-on I e.g. (want to) have a string “emoji”, so people can easily search for emojis in their address bar. However, I want to offer this as an opt-in, because some people may e.g. just usually start their search wit…