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Firefox appends www before random words in URL bar

  • 10 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 14 views
  • Last reply by Ekci

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The problem is that: 1. I copy random word. 2. Press CTRL+T and CTRL+V and press ENTER. Last time it happened it was a word "homography". 3. I end up on the website "http://www.homography/" 4. Why?

It is random, pasting it again in the URL bar does search in Google. I have these settings changed in `about:config`: browser.fixup.alternate.enabled = false browser.fixup.alternate.prefix = (empty) browser.fixup.alternate.suffix = (empty)

What's wrong?

The problem is that: 1. I copy random word. 2. Press CTRL+T and CTRL+V and press ENTER. Last time it happened it was a word "homography". 3. I end up on the website "http://www.homography/" 4. Why? It is random, pasting it again in the URL bar does search in Google. I have these settings changed in `about:config`: browser.fixup.alternate.enabled = false browser.fixup.alternate.prefix = (empty) browser.fixup.alternate.suffix = (empty) What's wrong?
Attached screenshots

Chosen solution

Unfortunately, Firefox doesn't have a feature to disable or reassign built-in keyboard shortcuts. An add-on can intercept many of them by injecting code into the current web page, but I don't think they can do it on the new tab page.

So I think for the time being, you'll have to take it a little bit slower so you don't have the Ctrl key down when you hit Enter. Or use the context menu command when applicable.

Solution to disable the shortcut: see cor-el's reply below.

Read this answer in context 👍 0

All Replies (10)

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Hmm, that's a strange result. If you were going so fast that Firefox thought you were still holding down the Ctrl key when pressing Enter, then you should get both www. and the beginning and .com at the end. I don't know how you could get only www. at the beginning. ??

If you are trying to search a word or phrase selected in a page in Firefox, consider

right-click > Search [site] for [selected text]

as a workaround or possible time-saver.

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jscher2000 said

I don't know how you could get only www. at the beginning. ??

Actually, Ctrl+Enter plus these settings --

Ekci said

I have these settings changed in `about:config`: browser.fixup.alternate.prefix = (empty)
browser.fixup.alternate.suffix = (empty)

-- gives me just the extra www. and not .com. Odd.

Modified by jscher2000 - Support Volunteer

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Oh, that's it! So it looks like Ctrl+Enter forces fixup that's bugged and respects suffix setting but ignores prefix?

A fix for me would be turning the shortcut off but I cannot find a way to do this. Thank you for your answer!

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Chosen Solution

Unfortunately, Firefox doesn't have a feature to disable or reassign built-in keyboard shortcuts. An add-on can intercept many of them by injecting code into the current web page, but I don't think they can do it on the new tab page.

So I think for the time being, you'll have to take it a little bit slower so you don't have the Ctrl key down when you hit Enter. Or use the context menu command when applicable.

Solution to disable the shortcut: see cor-el's reply below.

Modified by jscher2000 - Support Volunteer

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jscher2000 said

Unfortunately, Firefox doesn't have a feature to disable or reassign built-in keyboard shortcuts. An add-on can intercept many of them by injecting code into the current web page, but I don't think they can do it on the new tab page. So I think for the time being, you'll have to take it a little bit slower so you don't have the Ctrl key down when you hit Enter. Or use the context menu command when applicable.

Ok, I will but shouldn't it be reported as a bug of a fixup? :)

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Ekci said

Ok, I will but shouldn't it be reported as a bug of a fixup? :)

I thought about that, but the quick fix of making the prefix correctly blank doesn't help you bypass fixup:

Ctrl+Enter: if prefix = "" and suffix = "" then => http://word/

You need new logic:

Ctrl+Enter: if prefix = "" and suffix = "" then => DO NOT FIXUP

Or a new preference:

browser.fixup_shortcut.enabled = (true|false)

Solution to disable the shortcut: see cor-el's reply below.

Modified by jscher2000 - Support Volunteer

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Ok, thank you! I will solve this problem but still hope that there will be an option to disable the shortcut. It seems that I think faster than my fingers can move :)

Modified by Ekci

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Possibly you discovered it already but just in case, here's the bug tracker: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/

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Maybe:

  • browser.urlbar.ctrlCanonizesURLs = false
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Yes! It did work, thank you @cor-el!