In Firefox type about:config in the address bar and press ENTER.

Search for Keyword

Locate and double-click the entry for keyword.URL

Modify it by add the below set of values :

Google: http://www.google.com/search?&q=

Hope this will solve your problem :)

Note that the keyword.URL is no longer used in current Firefox releases.

You can use the SearchReset extension to reset some preferences to the default values.

• https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/searchreset/

Note that the SearchReset extension only runs once and then uninstalls automatically, so it won't show on the "Firefox > Add-ons" page (about:addons).

If you do not keep changes after a restart or otherwise have problems with preferences, see:

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Preferences_not_saved

cor-el, thanks. I actually tried this already -- and my apologies for not mentioning the fact in my original posting. It didn't work, I fear. It's really puzzling, but aside from the unrequested search engine I seem to be suffering no obvious problems. But who knows what's happening behind the scenes?

Hi, Samratb -- tried that but no luck I fear. Running out of options here.

Do you see this search engine if you click the search bar icon and open Manage Search Engines?

Do you see this search engine in the searchplugins folder in the Firefox profile folder?

You can use this button to go to the Firefox profile folder:

• Help > Troubleshooting Information > Profile Directory: Show Folder (Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder)

See:

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Unable_to_search_or_add_new_engines
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/remove-toolbar-has-taken-over-your-firefox-search-

cor-el, thanks again. I'm attaching a screen grab of the available search engines I have -- most are of limited value. The searchplugins folder contains only: google.xml

I'll check on the support links you've provided.

Do you find any prefs related to this website if you search for startpage on the about:config page?

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/about:config

Create a new profile as a test to check if your current profile is causing the problems.

See "Creating a profile":

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Standard_diagnostic_-_Firefox#Profile_issues

If the new profile works then you can transfer some files from an existing profile to the new profile, but be cautious not to copy corrupted files to avoid carrying over the problem.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_data_to_a_new_profile_-_Firefox

The https://startpage.com/ is a legitimate site that doesn't run exploitive advertising, so it's very strange that Google searches are being redirected there. (If Google is being redirected there, that would explain why when you block it you can't use Google.)

Have you noticed the same issue in Internet Explorer? I wonder whether some external software or a change the Windows hosts file could be redirecting Google to Startpage.com for some reason.

It is possible that your ISP redirects to this server when a DNS look up fails if you can't find a reference to this website on your computer.

A test would be try change to alternate DNS servers.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Error_loading_websites#DNS

jscher2000:

Thanks for the suggestion. I never use IE, but for grins & giggles I cranked it up and it opened up right away in StartPage. But when I changed the preferred search engine to Google, it stayed there while the session was running. But when I shut the IE session down and restarted it, StartPage opened up again. The search engine choices that IE gives me are Google, Ask and two copies of the Bing icon.

Thanks to all who offered help -- I believe that I finally fixed the situation by simply saving my bookmarks and creating a new profile. I didn't save any of the addons, and so I suspect that one of them was the problem. A pity as they were all very useful. Pity I forgot to save my passwords tho'. Thanks again.

You could copy your passwords over from your older profile. This article has some tips on which files you'll need: Recovering important data from an old profile.

jscher2000 -- thanks so much. Now everything is running like a Swiss watch again.