Does it work if you press the Return key afterwards? That is what I have to do with a Mac, anyway.

You should be able to highlight and drag the text/URL between/behind a tab in your tab bar. This should then open the page directly or do a search using your default search provider.

Try Firefox Safe Mode to see if the problem goes away. Safe Mode is a troubleshooting mode, which disables most add-ons.

(If you're not using it, switch to the Default theme.)

• You can open Firefox 4.0+ in Safe Mode by holding the Shift key when you open the Firefox desktop or Start menu shortcut.
• Or open the Help menu and click on the Restart with Add-ons Disabled... menu item while Firefox is running.

Once you get the pop-up, just select "'Start in Safe Mode"

If the issue is not present in Firefox Safe Mode, your problem is probably caused by an extension, and you need to figure out which one. Please follow the Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems article for that.

To exit the Firefox Safe Mode, just close Firefox and wait a few seconds before opening Firefox for normal use again.

Please report back soon.

The Alt key works differently on Linux than on Windows when it comes to clicking a link, but Alt + Enter should open the URL in the location bar in a new tab just like a middle-click on the Go button or a middle-click on the Reload button to open the current URL in a new tab.

@finitarry: no, it doesn't work..

@ComputerWhiz: yes, the link opens directly in the current tab, but how can I get it opened in a new tab?

@cor-el: that's not what I intended for :)

Thank you all!

You can only open a link in the location bar in a new tab via Alt+Enter. Otherwise the link will open in the current tab. If it is a link copied as text from a web page then you can use the right-click context menu or use an extension that can handle text links.

• Text Link: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/text-link/

Dragging the URL/text beside a tab should open it in a new tab. Does it not do this?

You should be dragging the text to the area indicated on this screenshot.