Search with the Firefox address bar
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- Revision id: 619
- Created:
- Creator: AliceWyman
- Comment: moved image underneath the summary
- Reviewed: No
- Ready for localization: Yes
- Readied for localization by: AnonymousUser
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The Search Bar is the text bar found in the top right corner of the Firefox window. Using Firefox's Search bar, you can use the most popular search engines without having to visit their websites. When you enter a term in the Search bar, the indicated search engine is queried, and the search results are displayed in Firefox. In the Navigation toolbar, the Search bar is displayed in the far right corner.
- To use the search engine indicated in the Search bar, enter a term in the space provided, and press EnterReturn. The search results are displayed.
Table of Contents
Moving or removing the Search bar
The Search bar can be moved or removed by customizing the toolbar.
Resizing the Search bar
You can increase or decrease the size of the Search bar, by placing the pointer to the left of the Search bar, until the pointer turns into a two-ended arrow. Click and drag the two-ended arrow to the left or right to increase or decrease the size of the Search bar.
Included search engines
By default, Firefox includes the following search engines, each one suited to a specific type of search:
- Google for searching the web via Google
- Yahoo for searching the web via Yahoo
- Amazon.com for searching the Amazon.com retail website
- Answers.com for searching the Answers.com online dictionary and encyclopedia
- Creative Commons for looking for images, documents, and other media available for reproduction and other uses
- eBay for looking up items for sale or auction at eBay
- Wikipedia for searching the Wikipedia free online encyclopedia
Switching search engines
The name of the active search engine is listed in the Search bar and is identified by the small icon. In the following example, the active search engine is Google. To change the active search engine, click the down arrow next to the search engine's icon, and select a new search engine.
Managing search engines
Through the Search Engines Manager, you can download and install additional search engines for Firefox. You may find that you need additional search engines to look for specific types of content, such as encyclopedia articles, recipes, or song lyrics.
- To open the Search Engines Manager, click the search engine icon and select .
Adding search engines
Through the Search Engines Manager
In the Search Engines Manager, you can add new search engines that have been released for use with Firefox.
- To open the Search Engines Manager, click the search engine icon and select .
- To add a search engine, click Get more search engines.... The Mozilla Add-ons Search Engines page is displayed.
- To add one of the displayed search engines, click the
button. The Add Search Engine dialog is displayed. - To begin using the search engine immediately after you add it, click Start using it right away.
- To add the selected search engine, click .
- The search engine is now available through the search engines list in the Search bar.
While visiting a website
Some websites offer search engines that you can add to Firefox. These search engines are specific to the website.
- For example, when you visit the YouTube website, the search engine button acquires a colored glow, indicating that the website offers a search engine that can be installed in Firefox:
- To add the site-specific engine, open the search engine list and select
. - The search engine appears in the search engines list.
Removing a search engine
- Click the search engine icon and select , to open the Search Engines Manager.
- To remove a search engine, select it from the list, and click .
If you accidentally delete a default search engine, click
to recover the default search engines.- If you accidentally delete a search engine that you installed, you must re-install it.
Re-ordering search engines
- Click the search engine icon and select , to open the Search Engines Manager.
- In the Search Engines Manager, select the search engine you want to move. To move it up in the list, click . To move it down, click .
Keywords
Keywords are an easy way to search specific websites directly from the Firefox Location bar, instead of using the Search bar. For instance, you could assign a keyword such as ebay to the ebay search engine, then type ebay lamps, that will search ebay for lamps. For more information, see Smart Keywords.
In the Search Engines Manager, you can assign keywords to search engines in your search bar.
- Click the search engine icon and select , to open the Search Engines Manager.
- In the Search Engines Manager, select the search engine you would like to assign a keyword to.
- Click .
- In the Edit Keyword window, type the keyword you would like to use for that search engine, and click .
The Search Engines list has a "keyword" column, where you can see the keyword for each search engine in the list.
Search suggestions
If needed, you can allow Firefox to prompt you with search suggestions. When search suggestions are enabled, as you type in the Search bar, Firefox presents a list of suggested matches based on the letters that you have typed so far. Instead of typing the remainder of the search string, you can scroll the list to find the search suggestion for which you wish to search.
- To enable search suggestions for all of your installed search engines, select Show search suggestions in the Search Engines Manager. For more information, see Use popular search suggestions in the Firefox Search bar.