You can consider to open the results in a new tab, either via a middle-click or by changing the setting on the Google settings page.

Did you try the workaround and set the browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewers to 0 on the about:config page?

Do you mean, why hasn't anyone figured out what causes this and fixed it by now? I'm not sure.

But did you know there is a workaround for this? You can force Firefox to re-parse the results page by changing a setting. Here's how:

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter. Click the button promising to be careful.

(2) In the search box above the list, type or paste sess and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click the browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewers preference and change the value from -1 to 0 (that's a zero).

(Please don't change any other similar-sounding settings to 0 or you may disable Firefox's ability to save/restore your open windows and tabs.)

Then reload the problem page. Hopefully after that you won't need to reload.

Does that work for you?

Thank you to cor-el and jscher2000 for their quick replies.

I was indeed wondering why this problem hasn't been fixed yet.

I have tried the work around.

I work on many computers. When I go to work on another system, I have to apply the workaround.

I am always concerned when applying a workaround on other folk's computers. There may be unexpected side effects.

I just noticed it again on a Windows 7 Pro x64 computer with Firefox v29. When the Firefox updated to v31, the problem still existed. This prompted my comment.

It is an annoying bug that has been around for some time now. Thanks again, Tom

You can also try to disable Google Instant on the Google search settings page.

• http://www.google.com/preferences?hl=en

• Use Google Instant — predictions and results appear while typing
• Do not use Google Instant