diff --git a/quickwit/quickwit-opentelemetry/src/otlp/traces.rs b/quickwit/quickwit-opentelemetry/src/otlp/traces.rs
index 4742bae88a7..5bf4081a20f 100644
--- a/quickwit/quickwit-opentelemetry/src/otlp/traces.rs
+++ b/quickwit/quickwit-opentelemetry/src/otlp/traces.rs
@@ -165,7 +165,7 @@ indexing_settings:
   commit_timeout_secs: 5
 
 search_settings:
-  default_search_fields: []
+  default_search_fields: [service_name, span_name, event_names]
 "#;
 
 #[derive(Debug, thiserror::Error)]