Hello oonat, try Firefox Safe Mode to see if the problem goes away. Firefox Safe Mode is a troubleshooting mode that temporarily turns off hardware acceleration, resets some settings, and disables add-ons (extensions and themes).

If Firefox is open, you can restart in Firefox Safe Mode from the Help menu:

• Click the menu button , click Help and select Restart with Add-ons Disabled.

When the Firefox Safe Mode window appears, select "Start in Safe Mode".

If the issue is not present in Firefox Safe Mode, your problem is probably caused by an extension(probably an extension that modify your searchers), theme, or hardware acceleration. Please follow the steps in the Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems article to find the cause.

To exit Firefox Safe Mode, just close Firefox and wait a few seconds before opening Firefox for normal use again.

When you figure out what's causing your issues, please let us know. It might help others with the same problem.

thank you

Following on the above, suggestion: On Mac, this problem is associated with certain Spigot extensions, especially one named Searchme.

Open the Add-ons page using either:

• Cmd+Shift+a
• "3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons

In the left column, click Extensions. Then on the right side remove or disable Searchme -- and anything else that you don't need, such as any other Spigot/MyBrowserBar extensions. Bear in mind that all extensions are optional and none are included with Firefox when you first get it.

Often a link will appear above at least one disabled extension to restart Firefox. You can complete your work on the tab and click one of the links as the last step.

Does that help you regain control?

This might be the tip of a malware iceberg. When you install free software, you often get unmentioned bundled extras. I don't know how best to "clean" a Mac of such items, but you may want to look into it.