why is firefox suddenly forcing the use of the address bar for searching.

This JUST STARTED happening to me about 5 mins ago.... One minute I was typing happily in my search bar then on the next search, not even 3 mins after that one, it started to jump to the address bar. I thought it was a key shortcut I did by mistake when my chunky cat jumped on my lap. Apparently not?

I hate it. Firefox has been my go-to because of security and I never felt forced to use features. This one? definitely deserves to be an option.

In my opinion, redirecting input from the center search box to the address bar breaks established muscle memory and makes a previously efficient interaction less intuitive. This change conflicts with Fitts's Law by increasing the "effort" required for a common task without providing a clear usability benefit.

I̶f̶ a̶n̶y̶o̶n̶e̶ f̶i̶n̶d̶s̶ a̶ w̶a̶y̶ o̶f̶ s̶t̶o̶p̶p̶i̶n̶g̶ t̶h̶i̶s̶ f̶r̶o̶m̶ h̶a̶p̶p̶e̶n̶i̶n̶g̶ p̶l̶e̶a̶s̶e̶ s̶h̶a̶r̶e̶!̶

Found a fix! about:config then set this demon to false ---> browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.improvesearch.handoffToAwesomebar

Hello

A similar question https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1583718

This config setting has been reinstated in Firefox 148.0.2 https://www.firefox.com/en-US/firefox/148.0.2/releasenotes