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FF23 about:home search tied to toolbar search

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In previous versions of firefox, I had two different searches available from my home (about:home) page.

The search in the middle of the page searches google (or whatever search is configured for it).

The search in the toolbar searches wikipedia (or whatever search is configured for it).

Having two different searches available (without having to visit either site's page) is very useful.

But since FF23, the about:home search is linked to the toolbar search. If I change the toolbar search, the about:home search is updated to the same thing.

How can I unlock these, and get my two different searches back?

In previous versions of firefox, I had two different searches available from my home (about:home) page. The search in the middle of the page searches google (or whatever search is configured for it). The search in the toolbar searches wikipedia (or whatever search is configured for it). Having two different searches available (without having to visit either site's page) is very useful. But since FF23, the about:home search is linked to the toolbar search. If I change the toolbar search, the about:home search is updated to the same thing. How can I unlock these, and get my two different searches back?

All Replies (3)

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That is a new feature in Firefox 23. You can use this extension to restore the keyword.URL pref to the Location Bar and the separate old behavior, but the Search Container on about:home will still be tied to the search engine that is selected in the Search Bar.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/keywordurl-hack/

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This doesn't actually help, as my employer uses a proxy server which effectively disables the location-bar search. i.e. if I search for cheese, I get an error page telling me the cheese server is unavailable.

In fact, I have not used location-bar search for such a long time, that I had forgotten it exists...

I presume the about:home page is still stored in the omni.ja file.

If this is a deliberate change in FireFox policy, and there are no config options available, I guess I could just edit it and hard-code a google/whatever search there....

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quote: I guess I could just edit it and hard-code a google/whatever search there....

Yup - that works. I'd prefer something that doesn't require editing the code after every upgrade, but if that is what it takes.....

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