Join the AMA (Ask Me Anything) with the Firefox leadership team to celebrate Firefox 20th anniversary and discuss Firefox’s future on Mozilla Connect. Mark your calendar on Thursday, November 14, 18:00 - 20:00 UTC!

Avatar for Username

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

This thread was archived. Please ask a new question if you need help.

Why do google search results reset to match the search bar terms when i use the back button?

  • 2 replies
  • 56 have this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by SupraLance

SupraLance
SupraLance
more options

Since the update to FF 23, the list of Google search results clears and the on-page search box is reset to match the address bar search box when I hit the back button to re-view the results list after checking a result.

To see this issue for yourself, set your search provider to Google and make sure Instant is on. Type a search term into the search bar and press enter. A google page appears with your results list. Now, change your search terms or conduct a new search directly from the google page (without using the FF search bar). Click on the first result in the search list, then click the back button to return to the search results so you can check a differest result. As FF goes back to the google page, it will reset the on-page search box to match the FF search bar (although you were no longer on this search) and all search results will disappear, replaced by the message "Press enter to search". Pressing enter reconducts your old search, not the one you were on.

This is incredibly maddening since searching for something requires frequent use of the back button to check through the list of search results, and then frequently trying the search again with slightly different terms. Although it sounds like a Google issue, it did not occur on the old firefox and has me wanting to revert. I tried to revert to the old search function via the "keyword search" addon, but this did not fix my issue. Is there a way to force FF to go back to the actual google search page I was just on instead of conducting a new google search from the FF search box when I hit the back button?

Since the update to FF 23, the list of Google search results clears and the on-page search box is reset to match the address bar search box when I hit the back button to re-view the results list after checking a result. To see this issue for yourself, set your search provider to Google and make sure Instant is on. Type a search term into the search bar and press enter. A google page appears with your results list. Now, change your search terms or conduct a new search directly from the google page (without using the FF search bar). Click on the first result in the search list, then click the back button to return to the search results so you can check a differest result. As FF goes back to the google page, it will reset the on-page search box to match the FF search bar (although you were no longer on this search) and all search results will disappear, replaced by the message "Press enter to search". Pressing enter reconducts your old search, not the one you were on. This is incredibly maddening since searching for something requires frequent use of the back button to check through the list of search results, and then frequently trying the search again with slightly different terms. Although it sounds like a Google issue, it did not occur on the old firefox and has me wanting to revert. I tried to revert to the old search function via the "keyword search" addon, but this did not fix my issue. Is there a way to force FF to go back to the actual google search page I was just on instead of conducting a new google search from the FF search box when I hit the back button?

All Replies (2)

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
more options

In Firefox 23 versions and later the keyword.URL pref is no longer supported and it is no longer possible to specify the search engine for the location bar via the keyword.URL pref.
The search engine that is used on the location bar and on the about:home page is the search engine that is selected in the search Bar on the Navigation Toolbar.
Current Firefox versions do not update the about:home home page until you refresh the page (future versions will do this automatically without a refresh) and that is what happens if you use the Back key.

You can install the Keyword Search extension to specify with search engine to use for the location bar and which search engine to use for the about:home page via the Options/Preferences windows of this extension, accessible via the about:addons page.

SupraLance
SupraLance Question owner
more options

Thanks for the quick response, but as I mentioned in the last paragraph, I already added the Keyword Search extension in an attempt to fix this. It didn't help.

Ive checked the address bar and noticed that it contains both the terms in the firefox search box and the new search terms I entered on the Google page. On page back, the address bar is correctly reverted to match what it was before, but the google page loads the search terms from the firefox search box rather than the newer search terms. I have found a workaround by disabling Google instant, which causes the address bar to no longer include the terms from the firefox search bar once i switch to a new search on the google page. I would conclude this is an incompatibility issue between google instant and firefox 23, which perhaps needs to be addressed on googles end?