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URLs getting treated as search terms

  • 3 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 6 views
  • Last reply by Paul

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Certain websites are getting sent to a search engine rather than being accepted as a URL.

This seems to happen most often with sites that have something other than a www prefix (for example, dvd.netflix.com) or sites with an odd format (for example, http://attwirelessinternet to access my router), regardless of whether I prepend https:// to the URL. This causes delays when the network is busy, as I must wait a minute or two for the search engine to load; in the worst cases, navigation becomes impossible if it is a page not indexed by search engines.

I though I could work around this by adding a blank search provider to the list of options -- for example, entering HTTPS under Name and https://&s under "Search string to use," but Firefox won't accept this.

Is there a way to force Firefox to accept a string as a URL without disabling the search bar function, or to manually edit a config file somewhere to force it to accept my workaround?

Certain websites are getting sent to a search engine rather than being accepted as a URL. This seems to happen most often with sites that have something other than a www prefix (for example, dvd.netflix.com) or sites with an odd format (for example, http://attwirelessinternet to access my router), regardless of whether I prepend https:// to the URL. This causes delays when the network is busy, as I must wait a minute or two for the search engine to load; in the worst cases, navigation becomes impossible if it is a page not indexed by search engines. I though I could work around this by adding a blank search provider to the list of options -- for example, entering HTTPS under Name and https://&s under "Search string to use," but Firefox won't accept this. Is there a way to force Firefox to accept a string as a URL without disabling the search bar function, or to manually edit a config file somewhere to force it to accept my workaround?

All Replies (3)

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Hi

I have just tried dvd.netflix.com and it opens as that site rather than as a search query.

What happens when you try?

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After some further experimentation, I think what is happening is that it got accidentally entered as a search term once somehow, and thereafter every time I entered the address, Firefox would see the search in my history and think I wanted to search again.

Once I follow the links in the search to actually navigate to dvd.netflix.com, now that it is in my history, Firefox will take me there when I enter it.

How it got that way in the first place and what will happen if I clear my history I am not sure.

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I am sorry, but we will not be able to see that here. If you clear your keyboard apps history, it should stop thsi from happening again, or you could add that site as a "top site" to the Firefox for Android home screen for easy future access.