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single word hostname

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  • 34 have this problem
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  • Last reply by cividan

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How can I restore the functionality of previous firefox version of automatically going to hostname when I type a single word in the address bar. I use firefox specifically for this behavior that I love and now I have to go click on the top corner for each website that I want to reach via single word. What setting do I need to change in the about:config page to restore the old functionality ?

How can I restore the functionality of previous firefox version of automatically going to hostname when I type a single word in the address bar. I use firefox specifically for this behavior that I love and now I have to go click on the top corner for each website that I want to reach via single word. What setting do I need to change in the about:config page to restore the old functionality ?

Chosen solution

The only obvious thing I see at the moment is to turn off searching from the address bar. Firefox will go straight to DNS resolution and, if your entry is not a valid host name, will try fixup (e.g., www.+what you typed+.com).

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter. Click the button promising to be careful.

(2) In the search box above the list, type or paste keyw and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click the keyword.enabled preference to toggle it from true to false.

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All Replies (8)

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Do you mean local sites, or were you having Firefox fix up the URL from, say, abc to www.abc.com?

Local Sites

Firefox should save your preference after the first time you click the Yes button.

In my test, I typed intranet and got Google search results and the push-down info-bar. After clicking the Yes button, Firefox added a new preference that I could see in about:config:

browser.fixup.domainwhitelist.intranet = true

Subsequently, typing intranet in the address bar promptly loaded the local site.

Possible reasons that yours isn't working:

  • If it doesn't save at all, could it be that you are browsing in a private window? Firefox won't save this entry automatically in a private window. I think you could add the preference manually, although that's a bit of pain.
  • Or if it works only until you exit Firefox and is not in effect after you start it up again, the setting might be getting cleared by utility/privacy software, or a problem with updating your prefs.js settings file.
  • Or there might be a glitch: since this is a new feature that's certainly possible...
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Hi, I understand it will save it after the first visit but we use alot of different temporary hostname that keep changing and that was one of the reason I started using FF instead of other browser is that I don't need to remember to type a trailing slash at the end of the hostname. i want to completly disable single word search from the address bar and have FF behave the way it was doing in all the previous version and directly reach the hostname when I type a single word. I tried browser.fixup.domainwhitelist.* = true but it didn't work.

Is there a setting i can change in the about:config page to restore that behavior?

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Seçilmiş Həll

The only obvious thing I see at the moment is to turn off searching from the address bar. Firefox will go straight to DNS resolution and, if your entry is not a valid host name, will try fixup (e.g., www.+what you typed+.com).

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter. Click the button promising to be careful.

(2) In the search box above the list, type or paste keyw and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click the keyword.enabled preference to toggle it from true to false.

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Thanks that did the job.

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Just wanted to add some noise to this thread. I find the "answer" to be a workaround more than anything.

There should be a single "disable this feature" button if this is to be on by default. I don't particularly want to go through dozens of hostnames on dozens of PCs until I build a full list of whitelisted names on every computer.

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I totally agree with you on that, a workaround is not a solution but it's better than nothing. I never used single word search in the address bar anyway, when I want to search I have the CTRL+K reflex to go in the search bar.

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Hi

I have a same problem and I found that Firefox version 32.0.3 accepts the single word hostname and tries to lookup it in DNS first then do the keyword search.

So the solution with the "keyword.enabled" turning off is not the option.

Something is wrong in the code and developers don't want to admit it or even bothered to check it.

Version 32.0.3 working good with the single word hostname - any latest version not and it is immediately send it as a keyword for checking.

So my conclusion is that keyword functionality is changed and instead of doing initial nostname lookup as it was done in previous version that code or completely removed or there is a bug!

Regards, Areg

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When I first encountered the problem I did some research and found in the developper forum that it was changed to meet the expectation of user migrating from other browser to firefox but firefox at least offer you if you want to go straight to the host instead of doing single word search and offer you to remember it for this specific host. internet explorer implemented a trailing "slash" in the word to prevent single word search but firefox didn't implement it this way. I guess it'a a developper choice but for me I let the search from the address bar disable but I'm no developper but I fell it wouldn't be too hard to implement both fonctionality and offer a way to choose wich behavior is prefered by the users but again not beeing a developper myself I can't judge how complicated/time consuming it can be to implement a feature being contested by a few minority of users as I can judge by the popularity of this thread.