Firefox will by default try to guess what you want to look at based on prior history it may simply be doing that. See

• Address bar autocomplete suggestions in Firefox
• Remove websites from the address bar suggestions

You have quite a few options for changing suggestions or removing items.

It could be something more sinister, in which case post your full troubleshooting information, and maybe you will need to look for unwanted programs or malware.

Please post back after reading the above linked articles.

See also Remove a toolbar that has taken over your Firefox search or home page And Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware

To find the correct solution to your problem, we require some more non-personal information from you. Please do the following:

1. Click the menu button , click help and select Troubleshooting Information.
2. Now, a new tab containing your troubleshooting information should open.
3. At the top of the page, you should see a button that says "Copy text to clipboard". Click it.
4. Now, go back to your forum post and click inside the reply box. Press Ctrl+V to paste all the information you copied into the forum post.

If you need further information about the Troubleshooting information page, please read the article Use the Troubleshooting Information page to help fix Firefox issues.

Does anything come up if you search the history in the sidebar or the Library for goo.gl ?

Unfortunately, no. I've done all I can to prevent Firefox from storing history, and despite not being able to ferret out all of the ways it saves information, I have at least managed to keep my recent history and library clean.

See

   Awesome Bar...
   Remove websites from the Awesome Bar suggestions 

Thanks very much. I had managed to find those articles before posting, and they had helped me eliminate some possibilities. They also helped me eliminate the bookmarks! See also Remove a toolbar... ...Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware

I had not found these articles, and they're very helpfully written. Unfortunately, it appears I have no unusual add-ons, nor search engines which have taken over (at least, not at this time, though I have encountered this problem previously).

I keep my security software up to date and follow other common-sense precautions, including regular scans, and have found no malware, to include rootkits.

While I have been able to remove the sites manually, the question remains--how did this happen?

Per your request, here is my troubleshooting information as well, in the hopes it will shed some light on this issue.

Thank you again for your prompt, clear, and polite replies.

Application Basics

Name: Firefox Version: 30.0 User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:30.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/30.0

Crash Reports for the Last 3 Days

All Crash Reports

Extensions

Name: Adblock Plus Version: 2.6.3 Enabled: true ID: {d10d0bf8-f5b5-c8b4-a8b2-2b9879e08c5d}

Important Modified Preferences

accessibility.blockautorefresh: true accessibility.typeaheadfind.flashBar: 0 browser.cache.disk.capacity: 0 browser.cache.disk.smart_size_cached_value: 808960 browser.cache.disk.smart_size.enabled: false browser.cache.disk.smart_size.first_run: false browser.fixup.alternate.enabled: false browser.history_expire_days.mirror: 180 browser.newtab.url: about:blank browser.places.importBookmarksHTML: false browser.places.smartBookmarksVersion: 7 browser.search.suggest.enabled: false browser.search.update: false browser.sessionstore.upgradeBackup.latestBuildID: 20140605174243 browser.startup.homepage: https://www.adobe.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager07.html browser.startup.homepage_override.buildID: 20140605174243 browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone: 30.0 browser.tabs.closeWindowWithLastTab: false browser.tabs.warnOnClose: false browser.urlbar.default.behavior: 2 dom.mozApps.used: true dom.w3c_touch_events.expose: false extensions.lastAppVersion: 30.0 font.internaluseonly.changed: true gfx.blacklist.suggested-driver-version: 10.6 keyword.enabled: false keyword.URL: http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&q= network.cookie.cookieBehavior: 3 network.cookie.lifetimePolicy: 2 network.cookie.prefsMigrated: true places.database.lastMaintenance: 1403366924 places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages: 104858 places.history.expiration.transient_optimal_database_size: 167772160 places.last_vacuum: 1300792654 plugin.disable_full_page_plugin_for_types: application/pdf plugin.importedState: true print.print_printer: Samsung CLX-3170 Series print.printer_Microsoft_XPS_Document_Writer.print_bgcolor: false print.printer_Microsoft_XPS_Document_Writer.print_bgimages: false print.printer_Microsoft_XPS_Document_Writer.print_colorspace: print.printer_Microsoft_XPS_Document_Writer.print_command: print.printer_Microsoft_XPS_Document_Writer.print_downloadfonts: false print.printer_Microsoft_XPS_Document_Writer.print_duplex: -853646976 print.printer_Microsoft_XPS_Document_Writer.print_edge_bottom: 0 print.printer_Microsoft_XPS_Document_Writer.print_edge_left: 0 print.printer_Microsoft_XPS_Document_Writer.print_edge_right: 0 print.printer_Microsoft_XPS_Document_Writer.print_edge_top: 0 print.printer_Microsoft_XPS_Document_Writer.print_evenpages: true print.printer_Microsoft_XPS_Document_Writer.print_footercenter: print.printer_Microsoft_XPS_Document_Writer.print_footerleft: &PT print.printer_Microsoft_XPS_Document_Writer.print_footerright: &D print.printer_Microsoft_XPS_Document_Writer.print_headercenter: print.printer_Microsoft_XPS_Document_Writer.print_headerleft: &T print.printer_Microsoft_XPS_Document_Writer.print_headerright: &U print.printer_Microsoft_XPS_Document_Writer.print_in_color: true print.printer_Microsoft_XPS_Document_Writer.print_margin_bottom: 0.5 print.printer_Microsoft_XPS_Document_Writer.print_margin_left: 0.5 print.printer_Microsoft_XPS_Document_Writer.print_margin_right: 0.5 print.printer_Microsoft_XPS_Document_Writer.print_margin_top: 0.5 print.printer_Microsoft_XPS_Document_Writer.print_oddpages: true print.printer_Microsoft_XPS_Document_Writer.print_orientation: 1 print.printer_Microsoft_XPS_Document_Writer.print_page_delay: 50 print.printer_Microsoft_XPS_Document_Writer.print_paper_data: 1 print.printer_Microsoft_XPS_Document_Writer.print_paper_height: 11.00 print.printer_Microsoft_XPS_Document_Writer.print_paper_name: print.printer_Microsoft_XPS_Document_Writer.print_paper_size_type: 0 print.printer_Microsoft_XPS_Document_Writer.print_paper_size_unit: 0 print.printer_Microsoft_XPS_Document_Writer.print_paper_width: 8.50 print.printer_Microsoft_XPS_Document_Writer.print_plex_name: print.printer_Microsoft_XPS_Document_Writer.print_resolution: 0 print.printer_Microsoft_XPS_Document_Writer.print_resolution_name: print.printer_Microsoft_XPS_Document_Writer.print_reversed: false print.printer_Microsoft_XPS_Document_Writer.print_scaling: 1.00 print.printer_Microsoft_XPS_Document_Writer.print_shrink_to_fit: true print.printer_Microsoft_XPS_Document_Writer.print_to_file: false print.printer_Microsoft_XPS_Document_Writer.print_unwriteable_margin_bottom: 0 print.printer_Microsoft_XPS_Document_Writer.print_unwriteable_margin_left: 0 print.printer_Microsoft_XPS_Document_Writer.print_unwriteable_margin_right: 0 print.printer_Microsoft_XPS_Document_Writer.print_unwriteable_margin_top: 0 print.printer_Samsung_CLX-3170_Series.print_bgcolor: false print.printer_Samsung_CLX-3170_Series.print_bgimages: false print.printer_Samsung_CLX-3170_Series.print_command: print.printer_Samsung_CLX-3170_Series.print_downloadfonts: false print.printer_Samsung_CLX-3170_Series.print_edge_bottom: 0 print.printer_Samsung_CLX-3170_Series.print_edge_left: 0 print.printer_Samsung_CLX-3170_Series.print_edge_right: 0 print.printer_Samsung_CLX-3170_Series.print_edge_top: 0 print.printer_Samsung_CLX-3170_Series.print_evenpages: true print.printer_Samsung_CLX-3170_Series.print_footercenter: print.printer_Samsung_CLX-3170_Series.print_footerleft: &PT print.printer_Samsung_CLX-3170_Series.print_footerright: &D print.printer_Samsung_CLX-3170_Series.print_headercenter: print.printer_Samsung_CLX-3170_Series.print_headerleft: &T print.printer_Samsung_CLX-3170_Series.print_headerright: &U print.printer_Samsung_CLX-3170_Series.print_in_color: true print.printer_Samsung_CLX-3170_Series.print_margin_bottom: 0.5 print.printer_Samsung_CLX-3170_Series.print_margin_left: 0.5 print.printer_Samsung_CLX-3170_Series.print_margin_right: 0.5 print.printer_Samsung_CLX-3170_Series.print_margin_top: 0.5 print.printer_Samsung_CLX-3170_Series.print_oddpages: true print.printer_Samsung_CLX-3170_Series.print_orientation: 1 print.printer_Samsung_CLX-3170_Series.print_page_delay: 50 print.printer_Samsung_CLX-3170_Series.print_paper_data: 1 print.printer_Samsung_CLX-3170_Series.print_paper_height: 11.00 print.printer_Samsung_CLX-3170_Series.print_paper_size_type: 0 print.printer_Samsung_CLX-3170_Series.print_paper_size_unit: 0 print.printer_Samsung_CLX-3170_Series.print_paper_width: 8.50 print.printer_Samsung_CLX-3170_Series.print_reversed: false print.printer_Samsung_CLX-3170_Series.print_scaling: 1.00 print.printer_Samsung_CLX-3170_Series.print_shrink_to_fit: true print.printer_Samsung_CLX-3170_Series.print_to_file: false print.printer_Samsung_CLX-3170_Series.print_unwriteable_margin_bottom: 0 print.printer_Samsung_CLX-3170_Series.print_unwriteable_margin_left: 0 print.printer_Samsung_CLX-3170_Series.print_unwriteable_margin_right: 0 print.printer_Samsung_CLX-3170_Series.print_unwriteable_margin_top: 0 privacy.clearOnShutdown.offlineApps: true privacy.clearOnShutdown.passwords: true privacy.clearOnShutdown.siteSettings: true privacy.cpd.offlineApps: true privacy.cpd.siteSettings: true privacy.sanitize.migrateFx3Prefs: true privacy.sanitize.sanitizeOnShutdown: true privacy.sanitize.timeSpan: 0 security.warn_viewing_mixed: false storage.vacuum.last.index: 1 storage.vacuum.last.places.sqlite: 1402312074

Graphics

Adapter Description: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870 Adapter Drivers: atiumd64 atidxx64 atidxx64 atiumdag atidxx32 atidxx32 atiumdva atiumd6a atitmm64 Adapter RAM: 1024 Device ID: 0x68a0 Direct2D Enabled: Blocked for your graphics driver version. Try updating your graphics driver to version 10.6 or newer. DirectWrite Enabled: false (6.2.9200.16571) Driver Date: 12-17-2009 Driver Version: 8.683.0.0 GPU #2 Active: false GPU Accelerated Windows: 1/1 Direct3D 9 Vendor ID: 0x1002 WebGL Renderer: Google Inc. -- ANGLE (ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870 Direct3D9Ex vs_3_0 ps_3_0) windowLayerManagerRemote: false AzureCanvasBackend: skia AzureContentBackend: cairo AzureFallbackCanvasBackend: cairo AzureSkiaAccelerated: 0

JavaScript

Incremental GC: true

Accessibility

Activated: false Prevent Accessibility: 0

Library Versions

NSPR Expected minimum version: 4.10.6 Version in use: 4.10.6

NSS Expected minimum version: 3.16 Basic ECC Version in use: 3.16 Basic ECC

NSSSMIME Expected minimum version: 3.16 Basic ECC Version in use: 3.16 Basic ECC

NSSSSL Expected minimum version: 3.16 Basic ECC Version in use: 3.16 Basic ECC

NSSUTIL Expected minimum version: 3.16 Version in use: 3.16

I can not see anything wrong.

Given that you clear history etc then if you do not have malware I do not see why you have something in your locationbar's suggetions. Possibly if you have now forgotten that site and are not remembering Hstory the problem has gone away.

Have you opened the History manager

• NewButton ->History (Or Ctrl+H for the sidebar)

to check you now have no History stored.