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search bar vs address bar

  • 3 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 2 views
  • Last reply by zelite-sama

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Until recently, the search bar that sits under the Firefox logo on my home page was a search bar - it provided nothing but suggestions / auto-completions as I typed, and the text appeared in and below the box.

The address bar, at the top of the screen, was where I typed addresses. They both did their respective jobs well.

Starting a few days ago, attempts to type in the search bar (under the Firefox logo) resulted in a mixture of suggestions, addresses, sites visited etc, appearing in and below the address bar (at the top of the page).

Is it no longer possible to have separate search and address bars? I've poked around in settings and while I've at least managed to turn the address bar into something like a search bar (no addresses or history), this seems like a second best solution - it was useful as an address bar, just as the search bar was useful as a search bar. I've lost some functionality.

Is the search bar on the home page now just a decoration? Can it be made to function again as such - offering nothing but suggestions/auto-completions? Is this an update, or a glitch in my install?

Until recently, the search bar that sits under the Firefox logo on my home page was a search bar - it provided nothing but suggestions / auto-completions as I typed, and the text appeared in and below the box. The address bar, at the top of the screen, was where I typed addresses. They both did their respective jobs well. Starting a few days ago, attempts to type in the search bar (under the Firefox logo) resulted in a mixture of suggestions, addresses, sites visited etc, appearing in and below the address bar (at the top of the page). Is it no longer possible to have separate search and address bars? I've poked around in settings and while I've at least managed to turn the address bar into something like a search bar (no addresses or history), this seems like a second best solution - it was useful as an address bar, just as the search bar was useful as a search bar. I've lost some functionality. Is the search bar on the home page now just a decoration? Can it be made to function again as such - offering nothing but suggestions/auto-completions? Is this an update, or a glitch in my install?

Chosen solution

There is a preference for this but it does take a bit of work to find it because of the unusual name:

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button accepting the risk.

(2) In the search box in the page, type or paste handoff and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click the browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.improvesearch.handoffToAwesomebar preference to switch the value from true to false

Success?

More info on about:config: Configuration Editor for Firefox.

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Chosen Solution

There is a preference for this but it does take a bit of work to find it because of the unusual name:

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button accepting the risk.

(2) In the search box in the page, type or paste handoff and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click the browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.improvesearch.handoffToAwesomebar preference to switch the value from true to false

Success?

More info on about:config: Configuration Editor for Firefox.

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Worked like a charm. Thanks jscher2000!

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I've been going out of my mind trying to find a solution to this exact thing! None of the suggestions I tried worked; but this one did. I did NOT want to be searching from my address bar, and I hated that trying to use the google search on the home page would automatically jump to the address bar. Not even putting in a separate search bar in the top was working.

So very much thanks for me and my sanity. I wish this had more views, as I'm sure we're not the only ones that hate this recent "feature".