URL Bar & Search Functions

Different from most browsers, Zen uses the URL bar as a quick and efficient way to navigate the web, eliminating the need for a dedicated new tab page.

When you click the New Tab button in Zen, the URL bar will pop up on top of your current tab. Simply type your URL or search query into the bar, and hit Enter to search keywords or visit sites directly in a new tab.

Toggle floating behavior of the URL bar

Zen has several floating behaviors for its URL bar, which can be changed in Settings > Look and Feel > Zen URL Bar:

• Floating only when typing (Default) – The URL bar will float in the center when you access it from the New Tab button or the Ctrl+L keyboard shortcut. But, if you open the URL bar by clicking, it will stick to its regular position at the top.
• Always floating – The URL bar will always float in the center, both from clicking directly, New Tab button, and keyboard shortcuts.
• Normal – The position of the opened URL bar will always be attached to the top, whether accessed by clicking directly, using the New Tab button, or via keyboard shortcuts.

Setting default search engine

By default, Zen provides Google, DuckDuckGo, and Wikipedia (English) as default search engine providers. You can choose between Google, DuckDuckGo and Ecosia* in the onboarding process after installing Zen.

You can also change, edit, and manage search engines by opening Settings > Search. Some of the available settings include:

• Set different search engines to use by default in regular and Private Browsing windows.
• Show or hide search suggestions and set its priority towards browsing history when URL bar is opened.
• Show recent searches as one of the search suggestions when using the URL bar.
• Toggle suggestion entries from Browsing History, Bookmarks, Clipboard, Open Tabs, or Search Engines to appear when using URL bar.

Add a website as Search Engine

Most search engine sites support the OpenSearch protocol, which enables them to be added as search engines easily. This includes sites like YouTube, X, Spotify, YouTube Music, Github, and Amazon.

Just visit the site, and after loading process is finished, if supported, you can see Add "Website Name" option in the right click context menu.

You can also add search engines from the Mycroft Project site, where they list more than 20,000 search engine plugins for various websites. Once you are on the search engine page for the website you want to add, right-click the URL bar and click the Add "Website Name" option.

Add, manage, and remove Search Engine from Search Shortcuts settings

Open Settings > Search > Search Shortcuts to show the list of available search engines, as well as further configurations.

Click the Add button to add a new search engine manually, using these text fields:

• Search engine name
• Engine URL (use %s in place of the search term)
• Search suggestion URL (use %s in place of the search term, you can use the same link as the Engine URL)
• Custom keyword that you can type in the URL bar to easily switch to the search mode for that specific search engine.

Here is an example of adding Qwant as search engine manually:

You can also set a custom keyword to the search engines you add, by double clicking the Keyword column on the row of a search engine. Type the keyword, and press Enter to save it. Use the search engine by clicking the New Tab button, type the custom keyword and press Space key to activate the search engine. Type your search query, and press Enter to show the search results in new tab.

Some other configurations you can make with search engines:

• You can also drag a search engine up or down to set the order of its appearance when searching in the URL bar.
• Custom search engines that were added manually can be edited by clicking on it (in the Search Shortcuts settings) and click Edit.
• To remove a search engine, click the search engine in Search Shortcuts settings and click Remove.
• Click Restore Default Search Engines if you removed one of the default search engines (Google, DuckDuckGo or Wikipedia) and want to restore them back.

Enable legacy New Tab mechanism

The legacy new tab page from Firefox can still be accessed by opening about:newtab.

But, if you want to revert the New Tab mechanism, you can do it by accessing Advanced Preferences page (about:config). Search for zen.urlbar.replace-newtab, and toggle it to false. Clicking the New Tab button will open the legacy New Tab page.