Search Engine in Firefox

lindabea

I noticed that when I do a search in the URL address bar, the search is defaulting to Google instead of the default search engine shown in the search bar (with the lens icon). Can someone please tell me if this is what's supposed to happen and if I can do anything to stop FF using google as a default. It uses my preferred search engine if I use the search bar, I think this may have started since I upgraded FF to ver 22

waddler_8

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/search-web-address-bar#w_changing-the-search-engine-for-the-address-bar

Pikeyp

Try this ... open a new tab and type .. about:config ... in the URL address bar, you should see a page with a warning about 'This might void your warranty ... etc, etc ... ' and click the box!

Now you should be in another page with lots of text down the l/h side titled 'Preference Name' and across the page will be other fields titled 'Status' , 'Type' and 'Value'.

On the top of this page is another 'Search' field , type ... browser.search.defaultenginename ... in here and press enter ... this will filter everything out and leave only one line!

So double-click this name and in the resulting pop-up window enter the search engine you wish to use! ... Bing ... for example

That's it , so now exit from this tab and your search engine should be changed to your own preferred one.

lindabea

Thank you Pike for your very detailed instructions. Is this default to google started with FF ver 22 as I'm sure it wasn't like this before. I presume I would have to do this every time I update FF. If so. it's a bit of a n annoying feature. I also noticed Opera is also defaulting to google search from the URL bar

johnmc

Way simpler than that, Just select from the dropdown.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/search-bar-easily-choose-your-search-engine

lindabea

johnmc wrote: »

Way simpler than that, Just select from the dropdown.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/search-bar-easily-choose-your-search-engine

That's what I used to do until a few days ago. Now it doesn't work. When you do a search from the URL address, it automatically defaults to google no matter what search engine is highlighted as 'preferred'. However, if you search in the search bar, it uses your preferred engine. It would appear that something has changed in the current ver of FF, but then, Opera seems to be doing the same thing.

bigfreddiel

switch to chrome

lindabea

bigfreddiel wrote: »

switch to chrome

Why would I want to use Chrome when I'm trying to avoid using their search engine.

J_B

lindabea wrote: »

I think this may have started since I upgraded FF to ver 22

The word is *changed* not upgraded!!