Could the problem be with the add-on or the website? Check for updates.

Many site issues can be caused by corrupt cookies or cache.

Warning ! ! This will log you out of sites you're logged in to. You may also lose any settings for that website.

• Delete cookies to remove the information websites have stored on your computer {web link}

• How to clear the Firefox cache {web link}

If there is still a problem, Start Firefox in Safe Mode {web link} by holding down the <Shift> (Mac=Options) key, and then starting Firefox.

A small dialog should appear. Click Start In Safe Mode (not Refresh). Did this help?

While you are in safe mode;

Try disabling graphics hardware acceleration in Firefox. Since this feature was added to Firefox it has gradually improved but there are still a few glitches.

How to disable Hardware Acceleration {web link}

Hi Fred. Thanks very much for the input. It's all been done. No change. This problem has been fickle - it comes and goes. I have compared similar search terms on different search engines and the problem definitely seems to be Startpage-related.

I had a suspicion that the problem might involve my malware program, which is Bitdefender Free. I just switched it off and searched for known safe websites and terms using Startpage. The Startpage search engine was definitely faster than before. So this may be the issue. I'm going to go back to Startpage Support with this. In the meantime, I'm switching to DuckDuckGo. It's fast and even produces better results than Startpage.

Any further ideas or suggestions welcome. Many thanks again.

That was very good work. Well Done. Please flag your last post as Solved Problem as this can help others with similar problems.

We have recently seen multiple reports that Bitdefender is causing issues with tab crashes in Firefox 73.