To revert to Google as your preferred search engine, please do the following.

• In the location bar, type about:config and hit Enter.
• In the filter at the top, type: keyword.URL
• Double click it and remove whatever's in there and replace it with http://www.google.com/search?q=

The URL to add in "keyword.URL" becomes a link in this post, so right click it and choose "Copy Link Location" to copy it to the Windows clipboard. Then hit CTRL+V to paste it. Saves you having to type the whole thing.

To reset your home page, do the following.

• Go to the site you want to set as your homepage.
• Click the orange Firefox button and go to Options | Options | General (Firefox 4.0.x and above).
• Go to Tools | Options | General (Previous version of Firefox).
• Make sure it says "Show My Homepage" in the first dropdown menu.
• Click the button called "Use Current Pages" to set the homepage to the one you have on the screen.

After you complete the above steps, install this add-on to prevent another search engine from modifying your preferences: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/browserprotect/

That was simple enough! And it worked GREAT!! Thank you so much!

You're welcome.

Could you please click the "Solved It" button? This will help others searching for a solution to the same question.

You'll have to login first, otherwise you won't see the button.

Thanks.

I would love to select Solved it, however I just tried to initiate another Google search and the same thing happened. I checked the settings in "about:config" and they are still as I had changed them yesterday

Which search engine is it redirecting to?

Sorry about the delayed response, I looked at the address bar while it was redirecting and the first thing it says is http://www.bywill.net......... then it will go to bing, or yahoo, or aol or ask or some other various search engine. I checked for other forums on this and apparently it is an ongoing problem with some sort of malware that is only affecting google searches. I guess that is just my luck

Could you do the following please.

1. In the location bar where you normally type in a search, type: about:config and hit Enter.
   
   
2. In next page which appears, type: keyword.URL in the Filter at the top.
   
   
3. Then right click the entry and choose "Copy Value".
   
   
4. Close the tab, then come back to your thread here and in your next post, right click and choose "Paste" from the menu.
   
   

See screenshot for an illustration of what about:config looks like.

I had the same problem and spent 2 weeks trying to fix it; .... looking for a browser high jacker. .... I followed suggestions give for setting google search, and changed the 'keyword.url' setting; ... even deleted all listed search engines. (about:config) .... Nothing worked.

When I did the same search with google on IE, the links worked correctly. ... So, today I down graded Firefox to 3.6 .... So far problem solved! ... The problem is Firefox 4 URL bar malfunction or ver. 4 is being high-jack in it's settings/plugins.