Anyone actually making google default search provider successfully?

In Firefox it's Settings, Search, Default Search Engine. If Google has vanished from that dropdown, the Restore Default Search Engines button lower down the same page puts it back.

If the setting looks right and it still misbehaves, check which Chrome profile you are actually browsing in - people set it in one profile and then work in another all day without noticing. The other thing to check is whether there is an entry in Manage search engines that looks like Google but is not; plenty of the hijacking ones name themselves Google-something and sit quietly in the same list. Delete anything you do not recognise, then set it again and restart.