Firefox includes a few default search engines. Bing was added as one of the defaults in 4.0b7 but still includes Google. You can easily switch back to Google, for details see the Search bar - add, change and manage search engines on Firefox article. It remembers the last search engine that was selected and when you next open Firefox will use that search engine.

I wasn't speaking about the search engine bar but about the default search engine when we type something into the adress bar. I'm well aware about how to add search engine, but how can I change the default search engine in the adress bar ?

I just tried it on a fresh installation of 4.0b7 and it defaulted to Google. Check the following hidden preference:

1. Type about:config into the location bar and press enter
2. Accept the warning message that appears, you will be taken to a list of preferences
3. Locate the preference keyword.URL, does it contain a link for Bing? If it does right-click on it and choose Reset, that should blank out the preference and it should default to Google.

An alternative is to double-click on the preference and set it to the following:

http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&q=

That is the Google "Browse by name" search used in Firefox 3.6.*

Ok, that was it. Weird it did changed by itself, or maybe it's a website which changed this without telling me ? (in that case that's a serious security issue)

Anyway, thanks a lot for your help :)

When I loaded Firefox 4.0b7 on Windows 7, it's come up with Bing as the default search engine for the search box and Bing is the only option. :-(

about:config shows the following keys...

browser.search.defaultenginename;Google browser.search.order.1;Google browser.search.order.2;Yahoo browser.search.order.3;Bing

I'd really rather not use Bing, it is shockingly bad at finding what I'm looking for.

Try to restore the default search engines.

Left-click the search engines icon on the search bar, open "Manage Search Engines" and click "Restore Defaults"

You can also try to delete search.sqlite and search.json in the Firefox Profile Folder

• Help > Troubleshooting Information > Profile Directory > Open Containing folder

A number of extensions will do this when they install/update. Check in Tools > Add-ons

1) type "about:config" into the address bar 2) search "keyword.URL" 3) modify value to "http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&q="

1) type "about:config" into the address bar 2) search "keyword.URL" 3) modify value to "http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&q="

In Firefox 4.0 (or higher) you can change default search engine in a way described above (about:config and so on...) , but after minute or two Bing can be back. It's because add-on called Personas Interactive. Choose manage add-ons and unmark Use Bing in Personas settings. Hope it helps. (Only Bing allowed in my PC is Chandler!)

Opening Firefox in Safe Mode and changing the defaults back to all Firefox worked for me. And this has been driving me nuts for weeks, so I'm very glad to find the fix"

Someone earlier in the thread posted a screenshot of the dialogue box.

The 'about.config' fix is no good, because when you type about.config in the address bar it can't find it, because Bing has taken over!  :)