I copied this question from another post which was not even remotely answered. The suggested “similar topic” is not relevent. So,…
Running Norton Safe Search as home page on Firefox browser. How do I get it to display image search results? The only tabbed options are “Web”, “Videos” and “News” none of which display images. Adding the word “Image” to the search field just brings up a few images for products to buy on line - no use at all. So, …
Do a search on www dot google dot com, for example [da vinci] (the ‘dots’ are because this stupid form won’t let me put it in without making it a link, and then telling me that links aren’t allowed. Grrr, Arrg!)
Google’s options are extremely useful. Norton Safe Search options are barely adequate, and, in the past two years, it even ditched the 3rd [News] option.
Is there a way to fix this, or is NSS fundamentally flawed and not of value or use to me?
Hello @Robert_Derrick
Norton Safe Search currently does not feature an “Images” tab primarily because its core function is to provide security ratings for websites rather than acting as a full-featured multimedia search engine like Google.
According to the Norton Community, the available tabbed options are generally limited to Web, Videos, and News.
Key Reasons for the Missing Images Tab
Search Partnership: Norton Safe Search is not an independent crawler. It often directs queries through search partners like Ask.com, which may have different feature sets than Google.
Security Rating Focus: The service is designed to filter out phishing and malicious sites by providing Norton Safe Web ratings next to search results. Applying these individual safety ratings to millions of indexed images in real-time is a different technical challenge than rating domain URLs.
Content Filtering Limitations: Norton has previously noted that deep image searching can sometimes bypass standard web filtering, making it more complex to secure compared to text-based web results.
How to Get Your Images Tab Back
If you require an image search, you must use a standard search engine. If Norton has taken over your browser’s default settings, you can revert it:
Open Chrome Settings: Click the three dots in the top right and select Settings.
Manage Search Engines: Go to the Search engine tab on the left sidebar.
Change Default: Click Manage search engines and site search and set Google (or your preferred engine) back to the default.
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Norton Safe Search currently does not include Image or News tabs because it is a security-focused tool, not a full-service search engine like Google.
Key Reasons for Missing Tabs
Security Priority: Its primary function is to provide Norton Safe Web ratings next to web results to filter out phishing and malicious sites. Rating individual images or rapidly updating news feeds for safety in real-time is technically more complex than rating static web domains.
Limited Interface: The official interface for Norton Safe Search is restricted to Web and Videos. Some users have noted that even when a “News” tab appears, it often lacks the robust filtering found in dedicated news engines.
Backend Partnership: Norton relies on search partners (previously Ask.com) to generate results. These partners may not provide the same breadth of specialized tabs as Google or Bing.
How to Get These Features Back
To access Image and News tabs while maintaining security, you can use one of these alternatives:
Use Norton Safe Web on Google: Instead of the “Norton Safe Search” engine, install the Norton Safe Web extension on your preferred browser. This allows you to use Google’s full features (Images, News, Maps) while still seeing Norton’s safety “checkmarks” next to the search results.
Disable the Search Override: If your browser is “stuck” on Norton, go to your browser’s Search Engine Settings and switch the default back to Google or Bing.
You are likely seeing “Brave Privacy” because your current search results are being powered by Brave Search, either as your manually selected engine or as a default privacy-focused option within the browser.
While the Norton Private Browser often defaults to Bing for standard web results, it is a highly customizable Chromium-based browser that allows users to swap their search engine to privacy-centric alternatives like Brave Search or DuckDuckGo.
Why Brave Privacy appears
Active Search Engine: If you are using Brave Search, you will see their branding and privacy disclosures at the bottom of the page. Brave Search is independent and does not track your queries or link them to your identity.
Search Ads: Brave Search recently introduced privacy-preserving ads. These are clearly labeled and do not track you, but they often include links to Brave’s own privacy features at the bottom of the results page.
Chromium DNA: Both Norton Private Browser and Brave are built on the Chromium platform. While they are separate products, they often share or recommend similar privacy tools.
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Norton Private Browser uses Bing as its default search engine.
While it is built on the Chromium platform, the browser is “search agnostic,” allowing you to manually change the default provider to other popular options like Google, Yahoo, or DuckDuckGo in the settings menu.
Search Partners for “Norton Safe Search”
If you use the specific Norton Safe Search feature within the browser (or as an extension), your queries are actually processed by search partners rather than Norton itself:
Ask.com: The primary search partner for the Norton Safe Search interface.
Yahoo: Used as a fallback or official partner in specific geographic regions.
How to Change the Engine
You can customize which engine supplies your results by following these steps in the Norton Support FAQs:
Click the three dots (menu) in the top-right corner and select Settings.
Click Search engine in the left panel.
Use the drop-down menu next to Search engine used in the address bar to select your preferred provider.
