In what cases does Firefox initiate a search when you type the location bar ?

Note that some ISPs redirect you to a generic search page if a DNS lookup fails instead of sending a 404 page not found notice. This will make it impossible for Firefox to react properly since you always get a valid page.

You can disable searching via the location bar by setting keyword.enabled = false on the about:config page. There are also settings in "Settings (Options/Preferences) -> Search" that apply to the location bar.

For Firefox 90 and the Firefox Home page you can also look at:

• browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.improvesearch.handoffToAwesomebar = false

Hi,

I use FF v90.0.2 and all my searches now go thru the address bar. I load FF and I have the default FF screen showing. It has a search bar on it. As soon as I type 1 character in the search bar FF automatically switches the search to the address bar. This is what I HATE. I type in the search bar and FF switches the search to the address bar, because I can see it as it does, all the following text I type appears in the address bar and the address bar drop down shows up.

How the make FF do searches thru the search bar only?

Seems, browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.improvesearch.handoffToAwesomebar was the setting. Once I turned it to false FF now works as I want. Thank you for the help.

Thanks for the help,

Charles

I hate the address bar search. Found multiple "solutions" but Charles' was the only one that actually worked. Why did Mozilla initiate this annoying "feature"?

Thanks Charles.

Joey

FINALLY!!!! I had been going nuts with all the previous directives to try to kill the aggravating "Search from Address Bar" feature.

A big, BIG thanks to cor-el for the solution!!