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Right click + Search of the highlighted text gone?

  • 6 replies
  • 15 have this problem
  • 3 views
  • Last reply by evilfantasy

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Earlier (before the most recent update that is) the right click + Google search feat worked by searching only the highlighted text of a link however it is not the case anymore. Now the whole text of the link is searched no matter what part of it is highlighted.

https://i.imgur.com/gMjQkJZ.png

As you can see in the example above, right click + search would query the whole text i.e "This review of Mount and Blade" even though only "Mount and Blade" is highlighted.

How to I get Firefox to query only the highlighted text of a link again?

Earlier (before the most recent update that is) the right click + Google search feat worked by searching only the highlighted text of a link however it is not the case anymore. Now the whole text of the link is searched no matter what part of it is highlighted. https://i.imgur.com/gMjQkJZ.png As you can see in the example above, right click + search would query the whole text i.e "This review of Mount and Blade" even though only "Mount and Blade" is highlighted. How to I get Firefox to query only the highlighted text of a link again?

All Replies (6)

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It is no longer there for me as well. There is an add on Content Search X that may help.

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=970746 looks like it should be there, did I read that correctly? Did you scan for malware?

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I have always used;

Context Search {web link} Expands the context menu's 'Search for' item into a list of installed search engines, allowing you to choose the engine you want to use for each search.

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I registered here to post this same problem. Only started to happen after the latest update for me too.

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Works fine for me on Firefox 30 - WinXP

See the screenshot below.


You may have an extension installed which is messing that up for you. Or maybe it's the type of hyperlink or because that hyperlink you highlighted part of was already "visited" (the purple "visited" color).


Try Firefox Safe Mode to see if the problem goes away. Firefox Safe Mode is a troubleshooting mode that turns off some settings, disables most add-ons (extensions and themes).

If Firefox is open, you can restart in Firefox Safe Mode from the Help menu:

  • In Firefox 29.0 and above, click the menu button New Fx Menu, click Help Help-29 and select Restart with Add-ons Disabled.
  • In previous Firefox versions, click on the Firefox button at the top left of the Firefox window and click on Help (or click on Help in the Menu bar, if you don't have a Firefox button) then click on Restart with Add-ons Disabled.

If Firefox is not running, you can start Firefox in Safe Mode as follows:

  • On Windows: Hold the Shift key when you open the Firefox desktop or Start menu shortcut.
  • On Mac: Hold the option key while starting Firefox.
  • On Linux: Quit Firefox, go to your Terminal and run firefox -safe-mode
    (you may need to specify the Firefox installation path e.g. /usr/lib/firefox)

When the Firefox Safe Mode window appears, select "Start in Safe Mode".
Safe Mode Fx 15 - Win

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 to find the cause.

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

When you figure out what's causing your issues, please let us know. It might help others with the same problem.

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This should work again in Firefox 31.

You can have a look at the current beta if you are interested.


  • bug 985824 - Search for link text context menu item should pay attention to selection

Modified by cor-el

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Thank you cor-el.