Search the Web quickly with Firefox's convenient, built-in Search bar. Control your search options easily by adding, removing and switching search engines in just a few clicks.
Table of Contents
Using the Search bar
Enter search into the Search bar at the top of the browser or on the New Tab page. Firefox will take you to the search results page for the search engine that's currently selected.
Switching search engines
The icon next to the search field tells you which search engine is currently active. This is Google by default but you can change it at any time.
- From the toolbar: Click on the arrow next to the icon and select your preferred search engine from the list:
- From the new tab page: Click on the logo and select your preferred search engine from the list:
Firefox comes with the following search engines by default.
- Google for searching the web via Google Note: The default Google search is encrypted to prevent eavesdropping.
- Yahoo for searching the web via Yahoo
- Bing for searching the web via Microsoft Bing
- Amazon.com for searching for products on the Amazon.com retail website
- DuckDuckGo is a great choice for users who don't want to be tracked when they search
- eBay for looking up items for sale or auction at eBay
- Twitter for searching people on Twitter
- Wikipedia (en) for searching the English Wikipedia free online encyclopedia
Add a search engine from a website
Some websites offer search engines that you can add to your Firefox Search bar. This allows you to search that specific website directly from your Search bar.
- To add the site-specific engine, visit the website that has your desired search engine. (We'll use youtube.com as an example.)
- Open the search engine list and select
- </for>
. Firefox will add it to your list and make it the active search engine.
Add a search engine through the search engines manager
In the search engines manager, you can add new search engines that have been released for use with Firefox. Perform the following steps on the Search bar on the toolbar or on the new tab page.
- Click on the search engine icon and select .
- To add a search engine, click Get more search engines... to launch the Mozilla Add-ons Search Tools page.
- To add one of the displayed search engines, click the button. The Add Search Engine dialog is displayed.
- To begin using the search engine immediately after you add it, put a check in the box next to Make this the current search engine.
- To add the selected search engine, click .
- The search engine is now available through the search engines list in the Search bar.
Remove a search engine
You can remove search engines you don't need by performing the following steps on the Search bar on the toolbar or on the new tab page.
- Click the search engine icon and select , to open the search engines manager.
- To remove a search engine, select it from the list, and click .
If you accidentally delete a default search engine, click
to recover the default search engines.- If you accidentally delete a search engine that you installed, you must re-install it.
Re-order search engines
- Click the search engine icon and select , to open the search engines manager.
- In the search engines manager, select the search engine you want to move. To move it up in the list, click . To move it down, click .
Tips & Tricks
- Use keywords to search specific websites directly from the Firefox address bar, instead of using the Search bar. For more information, see How to search IMDB, Wikipedia and more from the address bar.
- To learn more about search suggestions, see Use popular search suggestions in the Firefox Search bar.
- The Search bar can be moved or removed by customizing the toolbar.