Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

URL searchbar tries to load page when searching for something containing '.'

  • 2 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by cor-el

more options

The Firefox browser tries to interpret anything containing a '.' as a website, even though many such things are clearly not valid websites. This makes searching for things containing a '.' inconvenient. A more intelligent check should be done, maybe a check to see if the text contains a valid public suffix (https://publicsuffix.org), since all websites should contain a valid public suffix. This is especially true since this list was originally created by Mozilla, i.e. they can easily integrate with it. Then searches containing '.' which are clearly not valid websites could be done from the URL searchbar.

The Firefox browser tries to interpret anything containing a '.' as a website, even though many such things are clearly not valid websites. This makes searching for things containing a '.' inconvenient. A more intelligent check should be done, maybe a check to see if the text contains a valid public suffix (https://publicsuffix.org), since all websites should contain a valid public suffix. This is especially true since this list was originally created by Mozilla, i.e. they can easily integrate with it. Then searches containing '.' which are clearly not valid websites could be done from the URL searchbar.

Chosen solution

Try to place a leading quote at that start of the search term(s) or use a keyword search.

Read this answer in context 👍 0

All Replies (2)

more options

Hi, Firefox is a Web Browser and not a search engine.

Open a search engine and use wild cards in the search bar.

This is not a usual occurrence or a issue others are having nor is it a bug.

more options

Chosen Solution

Try to place a leading quote at that start of the search term(s) or use a keyword search.