Search with the Firefox address bar

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  • Revision id: 182507
  • Created:
  • Creator: gm455
  • Comment: Oxford commas for consistency
  • Reviewed: Yes
  • Reviewed:
  • Reviewed by: AliceWyman
  • Is approved? No
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Please update your version of Firefox for the latest features and security updates.

Firefox makes it easy to search the Web, your bookmarks, or history all in one field. You can even change your search settings to use your favorite search engine as the default, or to turn search suggestions on or off.

Firefox makes it easy to search the Web, your bookmarks, or history all in one field. You can even change your search settings to use your favorite search engine as the default, turn search suggestions on or off or set search shortcuts.

Using the address bar

The address bar is nicknamed the "Awesome Bar" because you can search everything on it: bookmarks, history, or search engines, or enter a specific web address, all in one field. Simply type into the field above your toolbar and choose from your history, bookmarks, and multiple search engines or press the returnEnter key to search using your default search engine.

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You can also type into the search bar on your toolbar or on the New Tab page.

Firefox can show you popular searches for your default search engine as you're typing. See Search suggestions in Firefox.

Using search shortcuts

When you open the New Tab page, tiles with a magnifying glass icon in the Top Sites section are search engine shortcuts. (See the next section for more about available search engines.) Click on a search shortcut tile and start typing in your search. Firefox will automatically put your search shortcut into the address bar.

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To remove a search shortcut, simply click on its three-dots icon and select Unpin from the menu. To add a search engine shortcut, click on the three dots on the right side of your Top Sites section and select Add search engine. See this Mozilla Blog post to learn more about search shortcuts.

Note: You can also assign search shortcut keywords to other search engines. See Assign shortcuts to search engines.

Available search engines

Firefox comes with the following search engines by default, depending on your country:

  • Google for searching the web via Google
  • Bing for searching the web via Microsoft Bing
  • Amazon.com for searching for products on the Amazon.com retail website
  • DuckDuckGo as a search engine for users who don't want to be tracked when they search
  • eBay for searching online auctions on ebay.com
  • Twitter for searching people on Twitter
  • Wikipedia (en) for searching the English Wikipedia free online encyclopedia

Some of these search engines will appear directly as a tile on the New Tab page for your convenience.

Customize your search settings: If these settings aren't right for you, changing them is easy. To learn how, see Manage Firefox search settings and Add or remove a search engine in Firefox.