Hi  !

Your system details show the Search Shield Study extension, which is
part of a Mozilla Shield Study experiment. Go to Options => Add-ons => Extensions and you'll find it there. When you disable it (or remove it) things should be back to normal.

See : https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/shield

Apologies for the inconvenience  !

Seems to be a fair amount of discontent with this shield study, which I also found myself a part of. At least for me, if I had been notified that I had been selected to be in this study, along with a brief explanation of what to expect and (ideally) the purpose for the study, my level of discontent and frustration would have been a lot lower than it was when my Firefox search window simply DISAPPEARED. I thought Firefox "broke" and was going to uninstall, then download another copy and then reinstall it. Fortunately, I checked my extensions and saw the unannounced add-on for "Search Shield Study 3.0.6." A not-so-quick web search was inconclusive, so I logged into the Mozilla Support site and found this thread.

I am very supportive of Mozilla conducting filed research to improve Firefox. If Mozilla was affiliated with a US-based university or other research institution, each study would need to be approved by an Institutional Review Board. Part of that process is to ensure that research participants give INFORMED consent when participating in every study. Frankly, the opt-out procedures MIGHT be sufficient if Firefox users were told at the time of agree to participate what some of the effects might be. Like finding features disabled suddenly. Just as frankly, however, unless there is a good reason to hide the purpose of a particular study from users, why not just send a message to those selected for a particular study that they have been selected, and a few details about what to expect or what to do if participating in that particular study with that particular software version (in this case Search Shield Study 3.0.6) impairs the user experience. I'm sure that in most cases, you would have less frustration and confusion among participants and--in most cases--get better data. By keeping research participants in the dark, you risk losing them as loyal customers unnecessarily. Think about it.

Unfortunately there is nothing that we, contributors on the support forum, can do about it, for we are (for the main part) volunteers, users just like you, trying to help other users in our spare time.

Would you consider submitting your thoughts and suggestions here :

Input page: https://qsurvey.mozilla.com/s3/FirefoxInput/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/firefox

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Firefox

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/

@ aquarosa :

Have you also tried this to see if there are any other extensions listed there :

Type in the address bar about:studies

@ aquarosa and DrBB01  :

You may have volunteered for these studies :

See :

Options => Privacy & Security => under 'Data Collection and Use' :

Did you uncheck : 'Allow Firefox to install and run studies '  ?

Happy112 said

Unfortunately there is nothing that we, contributors on the support forum, can do about it, for we are (for the main part) volunteers, users just like you, trying to help other users in our spare time.

Happy112, Thanks for the reminder about the volunteer status of most of the people who help out here, as well as the followup links. BTW, re your followup, I was aware that I had not opted out of research participation and, as I hope I indicated, I am certainly supportive of research that helps to improve Firefox. I am more concerned that simply not opting out of participation (or agreeing to participate in a generic way) is generally not considered sufficiently informed consent with respect to any particular research study. By analogy, people often agree to participate sometime in the future in clinic studies for a particular condition they may have. However, when a study begins recruiting participants, they are given as much information as possible about the benefits and risks so they can make an informed decision about whether to participate in any particular study, and so they are not shocked by predictable developments that may occur. From my particular perspective, had I known what to expect during the Search Shield study (e.g., that the Firefox search window would disappear), I would not have been confused and concerned, spending unnecessary time and effort trying to fix a "problem" that really wasn't. On the off chance one goal of the study was to see how users react when faced with a "damaged" browser under "controlled" conditions, that would raise ethical issues that could have been identified by a body like an Institutional Review Board, possibly avoiding unnecessary reactions like those experienced by me and some others.

In the past, those agreeing to be part of behavioral research studies were referred to universally as subjects, a passive, dehumanizing term. Today, such volunteers as generally called participants, a collaborative, humanizing word. The need for Informed consent acknowledges the value of research participants as collaborators, not mere objects, in the research enterprise.

Thanks again for your efforts and help. Will follow up with Mozilla.