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Recently the search engine for the default hompage changed to 'Ask' . How can I change this back to Google

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  • Last reply by jdsmort

jdsmort
jdsmort
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The default homepage search engine in Firefox 8 recently changed to Ask. I found an article describing a change in 'about:config' which should have reverted this to google, but it made no difference. Can anyone suggest : 1) Why it changed, 

                    and  2) How can I change this back to Google
The default homepage search engine in Firefox 8 recently changed to Ask. I found an article describing a change in 'about:config' which should have reverted this to google, but it made no difference. Can anyone suggest : 1) Why it changed, and 2) How can I change this back to Google

Modified by jdsmort

Chosen solution

With the about:home page loaded, paste this in the Location Bar and hit Enter. 

 
javascript:{localStorage["search-engine"]="{\"name\":\"Google\",\"searchUrl\":\"http://www.google.com/search?q=_searchTerms_&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a\"}";void(0);}


If that changes again after a Firefox restart, you have something related to Ask installed and need to get rid of that.

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the-edmeister
the-edmeister
  • Moderator
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Chosen Solution

With the about:home page loaded, paste this in the Location Bar and hit Enter. 

 
javascript:{localStorage["search-engine"]="{\"name\":\"Google\",\"searchUrl\":\"http://www.google.com/search?q=_searchTerms_&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a\"}";void(0);}


If that changes again after a Firefox restart, you have something related to Ask installed and need to get rid of that.

jdsmort
jdsmort Question owner
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Pasted and entered, but no change, still Ask search. I cannot see anything in Firefox under plugins or Extensions relating to 'Ask' Acrobat, Canon iMage Gateway, Flash, and Yahoo Aplication state Plugin are the only plugins, and Adblock Plus, Download Helper, and Flashvideo Downloader are the only active Extensions. I also cannot find 'Ask' anywhere in 'Programs and Features' I removed it from IE and from the search engine list in Firefox, but this has made no difference... Still always uses the 'Ask' engine. As seen in the screen captures attached

jdsmort
jdsmort Question owner
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Finally found the problem, in About:config there is a setting relating to the browser homepage.... various settings...

browser.startup.homepage;about:home

browser.startup.homepage_override.buildID;20111104165243

browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone;rv:8.0

All these showed as user set, but as I knew I wanted about: home, but was not sure what the others did, I just reset the last two,( Rt click and select reset), restarted, and then found that I had the Google search back again. No idea why it changed in the first place, but nice to see it is not so hard to figure these settings in about:config if one uses a little common sense.