Well, I won't do it again :( I have learnt my lesson.
Although right now it could be on the front page (11 points), it seems that someone "punished" it. I guess the only way is to post and cross fingers to be on the right time.
Yes, with the amount of post on HN, mostly of them just not reach the front page because the "newest" window is not long enough for people to read it. I usually try a few times to check if the link is interesting or not. Sorry for any inconvenience :)
I think you can select the search engine (preferences), but if you select DuckDuckGo you will have only the thumbnails on the new tab, not the search input.