Why does the location bar in firefox 4 go to a google search instead of reverting to the correct website like it used to?
For Example: When I type in CNN in the location bar, it takes me to a google search of CNN. In firefox 3, it went straight to CNN.com. I would say maybe I installed something that over wrote it, but this happens on both of my computers since I installed the new edition. How do I fix this??? This is one of my favorite features of firefox!
Thanks so much for your time.
All Replies (1)
The change between Firefox 3.6.* and Firefox 4 is how location bar search works. In Firefox 3.6 it uses Google "Browse by name" search. With the browse by name search, it performs a Google search and if there is a clear match it will take you to the site, otherwise it shows the Google search result. With Firefox 4 it just performs a Google search if you type something which is not recognised as a URL.
To get the Firefox 3.6 behaviour on Firefox 4 you need to change a hidden preference.
- Type about:config into the location bar and press enter
- Accept the warning message that appears, you will be taken to a list of preferences
- Locate the preference keyword.URL, double-click on it and change its value to the link shown below
http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&q=
If you prefer, you can also do this by installing the Browse by Name extension - https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/browse-by-name