You can use the SearchReset extension to reset some preferences to the default values.

• https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/searchreset/

Note that the SearchReset extension only runs once and then uninstalls automatically, so it won't show on the "Firefox > Add-ons" page (about:addons).

Starting with Firefox 23 the keyword.URL pref is no longer supported and it is no longer possible to specify the search engine for the location bar that way. The search engine that is used in the location bar is the search engine that is selected in the search Bar on the Navigation Toolbar. You can install the Keyword Search extension to specify with search engine to use for the location bar and you can select the search engine on the about:home page via the Options/Preferences windows of this extension, accessible via the about:addons page.

• Keyword Search: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/keyword-search/

Ha ha, very funny. I can tell jokes too! It's not a bug, it's a feature!

Unless you're going to help me, I'd appreciate it if you kept the jokes to yourself. I've spent almost 40 waking hours trying to fix this, and my patience has been worn far too thin for games.

EDIT And now my search has been hijacked by ebay, what is going on here!

EDIT II

Oh my god, I thought you were joking. The firefox team seriously put this update through? They broke the address bar like this on purpose?

I'm going to have a hard time putting this into words without resulting to vulgarity. I am incredibly ticked off. I've spent hours trying to fix this. Do you know how much work time I've lost because I was waiting for malware scans to finish? Hours upon hours, lost to the wind. I've restarted my PC into safe mode more times in the past days than I have in the last five years. Speaking of years, my bookmarks, my settings, my search engines that I had saved to the search box are all gone now, over a year's worth of customization just gone. I was going to reinstall my OS this morning before I saw this message, at least I saved that much time.

I'm seriously considering looking into legal paths I can take. There is no way the Mozilla team could break such a core component of their browser without proper testing and feedback before deployment. If this was done this way on purpose, I will be incredibly disappointed. I expected better from Mozilla than this.

What is your currently selected search engine on the search bar?

Check the browser.search.defaultenginename pref on the about:config page and make sure that it is set to the default value Google.

• browser.search.defaultenginename

Do you see any prefs on the about:config page that are related to this and link to the wikipedia website?

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/about:config

If you do not keep changes after a restart or otherwise have problems with preferences, see:

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Preferences_not_saved

Do a malware check with some malware scanning programs on the Windows computer.
Please scan with all programs because each program detects different malware.

Make sure that you update each program to get the latest version of their databases before doing a scan.

• Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware:
  http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php
• SuperAntispyware:
  http://www.superantispyware.com/
• Microsoft Safety Scanner:
  http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us/default.aspx
• Windows Defender: Home Page:
  http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/defender/default.mspx
• Spybot Search & Destroy:
  http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html
• AdwCleaner:
  http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/
  http://www.softpedia.com/get/Antivirus/Removal-Tools/AdwCleaner.shtml
• Kasperky Free Security Scan:
  http://www.kaspersky.com/security-scan

You can also do a check for a rootkit infection with TDSSKiller.

• Anti-rootkit utility TDSSKiller:
  http://support.kaspersky.com/5350?el=88446

See also:

• "Spyware on Windows": http://kb.mozillazine.org/Popups_not_blocked

Oh my god, I thought you were joking. The firefox team seriously put this update through? They broke the address bar like this on purpose?

I'm going to have a hard time putting this into words without resulting to vulgarity. I am incredibly ticked off. I've spent hours trying to fix this. Do you know how much work time I've lost because I was waiting for malware scans to finish? Hours upon hours, lost to the wind. I've restarted my PC into safe mode more times in the past days than I have in the last five years. Speaking of years, my bookmarks, my settings, my search engines that I had saved to the search box are all gone now, over a year's worth of customization just gone. I was going to reinstall my OS this morning before I saw this message, at least I saved that much time.

I'm seriously considering looking into legal paths I can take. There is no way the Mozilla team could break such a core component of their browser without proper testing and feedback before deployment. If this was done this way on purpose, I will be incredibly disappointed. I expected better from Mozilla than this.

Sorry for your problems, but It sounds as if you jumped to an incorrect conclusion that your "default search from the address bar has been hijacked". Then you didn't seek answers from relevant Mozilla sources such as the 23.0.1 Release Notes or Firefox Support and pursued a path of remediation that wasted a lot of your time.

This page opens upon the restart after a Firefox update is downloaded.
http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/23.0.1/whatsnew/?oldversion=23.0
Same page for every new version released, with the new version number after firefox/ and before /whatsnew
At the bottom of that page there is a link to the current Release Notes page.
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/23.0.1/releasenotes/
the 6th item under Changed
Users can now switch to a new search provider across the entire browser

This new feature where the search engine which is selected in the Search Bar is also used in the Location Bar, the search container on the default Homepage, was tested over a period of 18 weeks in the Nightly, Aurora, and Beta channels of Firefox development (6 weeks in each channel, before moving to the next), the usual path leading to the Release of a new Firefox version.

As cor-el posted, there is an extension that another user / developer has developed which revert this change made in Firefox 23.0, as well as other extensions for some of the other changes

In conclusion, something that you mentioned on your last two responses - "legal paths" you can take ...
http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/legal/eula/firefox.html - is the Firefox EULA -
MOZILLA FIREFOX END-USER SOFTWARE LICENSE AGREEMENT
4. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY. THE PRODUCT IS PROVIDED "AS IS" ....

Wow, you can't be serious about that?! You just raped the different search functionality between the address bar and the search bar? And that even without giving your users the possibility to permanently reverse your change? At least I didn't find anything, whether in the options dialog, nor in about:config.

I hope you'll restore the functionality ASAP to use 2 different search engines at a time. For me, it was the fastest way accessing google through Ctrl+L and searching wikipedia using Ctrl+K...

Im guessing you didnt see or read this whole thread, there is a addon that brings the old function back.

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.

• Keyword Search: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/keyword-search/

Ah, I see. Just tried out the add-on. Works fine. Thank you, I somehow managed to didn't see the lines that named the add-on.

I'm having a similar problem with search bar. Whenever I use something other that my default search engine (Google) . such as Webster or Wikipedia, and then return to Google, my setting in prefs.js user_pref("browser.search.defaultenginename", "Webster"); user_pref("browser.search.selectedEngine", "Webster"); remain at whichever of the other engines I had selected in the last session when I log back on.

I understand that FF is supposed to start up with the last search engine that I have selected at the time I exited FF. My problem is that the entries in prefs.js don't recognize that I 've changed back to Google before exiting FF.

Now this is a FF problem and sending everyone to run an extension to correct it every time it occurs is stupid. It's time this was fixed.

Also, If I remember right, in the good old days, we had a check box under the Manage Search Engines which allowed us to set a default without editing the about:config. We need that back also.

"This page opens upon the restart after a Firefox update is downloaded. http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/23.0.1/whatsnew/?oldversion=23.0 Same page for every new version released, with the new version number after firefox/ and before /whatsnew At the bottom of that page there is a link to the current Release Notes page. https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/23.0.1/releasenotes/ the 6th item under Changed Users can now switch to a new search provider across the entire browser This new feature where the search engine which is selected in the Search Bar is also used in the Location Bar, the search container on the default Homepage, was tested over a period of 18 weeks in the Nightly, Aurora, and Beta channels of Firefox development (6 weeks in each channel, before moving to the next), the usual path leading to the Release of a new Firefox version. "

Three points.

1. The release notes entries are so cryptic that only those involved in development and testing understand what they really mean. Maybe I'm missing a link to more detailed explanations.

2. The 18 week testing period in various forms was performed by a relatively small percentage of FF users, mostly developers and power users, so it means that a release works but not that it's really meaningful or useful for us "common" users.

3. Why so many upgrades, so often? If it ain't broke, don't fix it. An 18 week cycle means there are multiple versions in progress at once. I wonder it that's why these dysfunctional changes are being made? What Joneses are you trying to keep up with?

This just demonstrates that their update system is broken. They aren't delivering to the users, they're delivering to themselves.

I'd like to see some feedback from the testing period. I'm very interested in seeing the demographics of their testing pool as well. Personally, I think they're making changes without regard to users.

Maybe you should try the unstable Nightlies (current betas of v26) to see the latest changes (18 weeks before they hit release). Also if you have this problem, cor-el solutions should help.

It seems that all you experts are missing the point that modifying the about:config entries is not fixing this problem. Constantly using an extension to fix it is not the answer. It's a programming bug!

I guess that there is no intent to follow up on what is a real bug in maintaining the prefs.js file. Rather it seems we are told to catch these problems at some development step without having the the time or capability to really test them. I don't even know where the versions in work are found.

Perhaps you could provide some useful info as to how we report a bug. The simple fact is that the FEATURE that records the last search engine chosen is not posting the the prefs.js file properly.