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In one of the recent updates, Firefox began tying my browser bar search, to the search bar search. How do I disable this?

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  • Last reply by cor-el

InsertKey
InsertKey
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I have my Address Bar (the one that shows URLs, and I can type into to search), and my Firefox search bar (not an add-on, the built in one I can add search engines to and change at anytime) at the top of my screen.

I believe its due to a new update, but now when I change the "Search Bar" search engine, it also changes my "Address Bar" search engine. This behavior is undesired, I don't want to have to change my search bar every time I search Google.

The only add-ons I use are not search related, simple stuff like AdBlock and Personas.

I tried finding something search related in About:Config but I get lost in there... all I learned is that when I change the "Search Bar"'s search it changes my default search engine in About:Config... I figured this as intended. I just need to know how to disable this.

I have my Address Bar (the one that shows URLs, and I can type into to search), and my Firefox search bar (not an add-on, the built in one I can add search engines to and change at anytime) at the top of my screen. I believe its due to a new update, but now when I change the "Search Bar" search engine, it also changes my "Address Bar" search engine. This behavior is undesired, I don't want to have to change my search bar every time I search Google. The only add-ons I use are not search related, simple stuff like AdBlock and Personas. I tried finding something search related in About:Config but I get lost in there... all I learned is that when I change the "Search Bar"'s search it changes my default search engine in About:Config... I figured this as intended. I just need to know how to disable this.

All Replies (1)

cor-el
cor-el
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Starting with Firefox 23 the keyword.URL pref is no longer supported and it is no longer possible to specify the search engine for the location bar that way.
The search engine that is used in the location bar is the search engine that is selected in the search Bar on the Navigation Toolbar.
You can install the Keyword Search extension to specify with search engine to use for the location bar and you can select the search engine on the about:home page via the Options/Preferences windows of this extension, accessible via the about:addons page.

Another possibility is to disable keyword search (keyword.enable = false) and use a (one letter) keyword search for searching via the location bar.
You can add a keyword to an installed search engine via Manage Search Engines (click the search engines icon on the search bar) and you can add a keyword to a bookmark.

That also allows to switch easily between search engines when searching via the location bar and you also do not have a problem with one word searches.