See if you have the Ask toolbar installed in Firefox button > Add-ons > Extensions.

Yes it is installed in extensions but I disabled it but did not remove it and it still shows up

Read Safebrowser Instruction here:

• https://support.mozilla.com/en-US/questions/859952#answer-228418

I really don't logically see in those instructions on safebrowser how that installs google as my primary browser in Firefox 7.

First off, quit calling Google your primary browser. Google, Ask, and Bing are search engines. Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari are web browsers.

To fix the search engine which is used on the Firefox Start Page do this. With the about:home page loaded, paste this in the Location Bar and hit Enter.

 
javascript:{localStorage["search-engine"]="{\"name\":\"Google\",\"searchUrl\":\"http://www.google.com/search?q=_searchTerms_&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a\"}";void(0);}
 

from your email answer, how do i paste this to the location bar?

Copy that code to the clipboard and then paste it into the Location Bar.

High-light that code, use {Ctrl + C} to copy it, then use {Ctrl + V} to paste it into the Location Bar. Then hit the Enter key.

I did manage to paste that code in the location bar and for that brief episode I had a google search engine for the fire start page. However, when I closed id down and re-booted the page, it reverted to ask.com as the primary search engine so that really did not solve my problem. By the way, the start page that I have does not show google to the left of the large central bar of the start page. I wonder if I should uninstall google 7 and reinstall it? I probably would lose my favorites and I don't want to lose them by doing this. Somewhere in this computer ask.com is flourishing just like a virus. I removed it's toolbar permanently both in extensions and in the programs section to no avail.

Get rid of Ask, it is resetting that searchContainer pref every time you open Firefox. Looks like merely disabling it doesn't work.

I did completely uninstall or got rid of ask.com in the search engine bar, the extensions location and the ask.com in programs. Therefore, I believe it must be embedded with Firefox since I don' t know of any other place that it could be! I really think that it is somehow hiding in the Firefox program and can not be removed far short of completely uninstalling Firefox 7.

Did we look under add/remove programs to make sure anything was not installed from " clicking next, next, next ". If that will help?

I just did that again after doing it several times before to make certain that ask.com was not somehow overlooked! Lete assure you there is nothing even resembling ask.com left. As far as I am concerned it is GONE!