Hi flip city, I'm sorry not to have responded to your query sooner.
It's possible to do what you want. I prefer scroogle's ssl version.
For the scroogle ssl search plugin, go to:
http://incognu.com/smhax.xhtml and look for the scroogle ssl searchplugin.
For about:config, this seems to work for me (going by what I have set in a 2.0 build):
filter for "keyword"
set:
keyword.URL https://ssl.scroogle.org/cgi-bin/nbbw.cgi?q=
filter for "search"
set these:
browser.search.defaultengine engine:///<set to path to ssl-scroogle.src>
(it will be in your ~/.mozilla profile directory)
browser.search.defaultenginename Scroogle
browser.search.defaulturl https://ssl.scroogle.org/cgi-bin/nbbw.cgi?q=