hello JeffLewis, firefox 34 changes the default interface, which makes it easier to define a default search engine but also use other search providers for one off searches at the same time. this behaviour is explained in more detail at: Search bar - add, change and manage search engines on Firefox - if you don't like the search suggestions provided you can turn them off in the firefox search options as well.

Hi, thanks for helping me.

So if I understand correctly, what I thought was a mess-up was just a Firefox tweak I was unaware of. I don't like it, but if it's a normal thing I will try to deal with it. What I liked to do was set my homepage to Bing (for the pictures) and then set the upper-right-hand little search bar to Google. Now that's become a little more complicated, I have to have Bing as the default in both places and it takes some extra doing to get Google as the search.

Another problem arose at the same time. When I'm on a webpage and I click a link, the new window is not full size, but actually varies in size. That's another change in behavior I wasn't expecting. it makes me have to resize all the windows all the time. Why do they do these things?

Anyway I'll be obliged to you if you know any way to stop that.

Hello, JeffLewis. If you are still having problem with the search bar and wish to go back to the previous version, you can go into about:config, then search for the browser.search.showOneOffButtons boolean and toggle that to false, this restores the old functionality. (You might need to restart your browser)

Note that, like always, edit your about:config at your own risk.

The above worked for me.

In the address bar, type about:preferences#search<enter>

If you miss being able to switch search engines without going crazy with menus, try this out;

Context Search {web link} Expands the context menu's 'Search for' item into a list of installed search engines, allowing you to choose the engine you want to use for each search.

Pillipp, It was easy as could be before the changes, but again the graphical oriented people needed to change something that worked fine.

There are still a number of us out here that can still read. I know that there are a couple of generations now that need pictures to find things.

It just seems there is too much effort spent on making things look pretty pretty.

hi relem, i have already explained the reasoning behind the change: it is now considerably quicker and easier to use different search providers than your default one on a one off basis. if you wanted to do this in the old search bar you'd have to first set a different engine in the search-bar, search & then switch back (since the default is also used in the addressbar/homepage/new tab). now that's just one click!

phillip, I understand what you are trying to do functionally. My issue is why the interface had to be so drastically altered. I was sometimes frustrated that FF would start with the last engine used instead of my default. I'm sure there must have been a way to fix that without a complete interface change.

By the by, the Context Search extension gets me back to the interface I want. It just needs a way to change the default without using about:config. It just seems that all of the new interfaces are contributing to users loading up with extensions that give them what they really want.