Hi there.

You're right in that there was a fairly recent update, but your question's details say you're on Firefox 44.0. The newest version for your OS is 45.0.1. You can check your current version by going to the three-bar Main menu, selecting the Help menu (question mark symbol at the bottom) and selecting About Firefox. It should also automatically check for updates at that point - I recommend updating to the latest, unless you need to use an older version for compatibility reasons.

Your Flash plugin is also out of date, so please visit https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/plugincheck/ to make sure you've got the latest versions of your plugins that are not vulnerable or incompatible. Extensions and Themes should update automatically, but you can update them by going to about:addons, selecting the desired category tab and choosing Check for updates from the gear icon at the top of each tab's view.

On-page text boxes like searches not working is not unheard of, but it is certainly not intended behaviour. The first things to come to mind are

• Bad cache. The page may have not loaded fully or it may be using corrupt or outdated data. Try loading it again without cached data: press Ctrl + F5, https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/keyboard-shortcuts-perform-firefox-tasks-quickly.
• Add-on interference. Add-ons may affect page element behaviour and prevent normal browser operation. Switch all Plugins to Never Activate in about:addons and then start Firefox in Safe Mode to disable Themes and Extensions: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/troubleshoot-firefox-issues-using-safe-mode#w_how-to-start-firefox-in-safe-mode. Safe Mode also overrides some settings that may be incompatible.
• If neither work, then it might be external interference like antivirus or malware taking over.

Thank you so much for your support Phoxuponyou. I ran a complete scan of my laptop, which was clear. Just now I went to a Firefox site for an update and it directed me to the three bar main menu, ?, About Firefox and it began updating. Then wallah! back to normal. Yesterday, when I checked out About Firefox like you suggested, it just appeared to be updated already. Well this is too weird for me to work out, but I am now going to take your advice and update my Flash plugin. Thanks again

You're welcome, glad to hear things are back in working order! If you updated through the website, you should have gotten the latest update and the About Firefox window now seems to indicate that, if no update was needed - all good.