Please update to version 23.0.1 to see if this resolves your issue.

Thanks!

It did not

(as I noted in the original post where I said I had the problem in both the old version 22 and the updated 23.0.1)

May I ask why you have 2 versions installed then? Does this happen on a specific website or on all websites?

I do not have 2 versions installed. When the problem arose on version 22 I updated to version 23.0.1 hoping it would resolve. It did not.

It happens for any search terms I type into the location bar. Previously it would search through google those terms, similar to the search bar. Now it get the message "Browser cannot display the webpage..."

Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions (Firefox/Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance).

• Do NOT click the Reset button on the Safe Mode start window.

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Safe+Mode
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Troubleshooting+extensions+and+themes

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).

You can check for problems with preferences.
Rename or delete the prefs.js file and possible numbered prefs-##.js files and a possible user.js file to reset all prefs to the default value.

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