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How do I get a new tab to default focus on the search box [Google, etc] instead of on the address bar ?

  • 6 cavab
  • 11 have this problem
  • 3 views
  • Last reply by dkitchin

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Firefox finally loads a new page when a new tab is created. GREAT! In my case this is Google. While I understand that many folks, perhaps particularly developers, perfer the default focus, after a new tab is opened, to remain on the address bar this drives me crazy as it, for me, is both un-natural and a horrible waste of time when I am quickly trying to find something out or search for a solution. Is there a / what switch determines where the default focus will be immediately after a new tab is openned ?

Firefox finally loads a new page when a new tab is created. GREAT! In my case this is Google. While I understand that many folks, perhaps particularly developers, perfer the default focus, after a new tab is opened, to remain on the address bar this drives me crazy as it, for me, is both un-natural and a horrible waste of time when I am quickly trying to find something out or search for a solution. Is there a / what switch determines where the default focus will be immediately after a new tab is openned ?

All Replies (6)

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Sorry, that is the way it is intended when you open a new tab, there's no preference to change it to the Search bar.

Just hit the Tab key to shift the cursor from the Location bar to the Search bar.

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That can also be a problem with the extension that you use to open that page in a new tab.

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Thank you for your replies.

Sorry that I don't quite follow cor-el's note. I simply configured FF to open every new tab with http://www.google.com rather than at the "blank page" option ( perhaps you are suggesting http://www.google.com/ instead ? )

May I suggest that some means to set the default focus locations "should" be available ? I am primarily a design engineer so I am constantly popping up new tabs to search for new or alternative parts or support documentation.

I was going to describe the appearance of a new tab and just "double-checked" by opening a new tab - and something different happened this time !

Normally the cursor IS in the Google search box when the new tab opens - but the address bar ( http://www.google.com ) is highlighted in light blue - which apparently is an even "higher" priority then the cursor.

Thus when I start typing characters I ( unknowingly ) erased the google address and start entering a "new address" - at least until I notice - or press <Enter>.

But just now the address bar contents were not highlighted and the cursor was immediately behind the google address. I now recall this has also happened before as I've seen the "appended" google address condition before.

Maybe this additional information would provide some clue.

Any follow-up appreciated. Thanks again.

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A new tab opens by default as a blank tab (about:blank).

If that isn't the case then an extension has changed that behavior.

Does that also happen if you middle-click the toolbar Home button to open the home page in a new tab?

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Ah-ha! "English is a horrible language within which to attempt communication" ( words with dozens of usually different meanings ).
Yes - FF with the default "blank:about" is a pretty useless browser, or rather the tabs are pretty useless ( my perspective ) so way, way back when I found some one that also found this behavior pretty useless and he wrote what I would have called an "add-in" ( extension as I now will call it ) so that each new tab would open to Google - but could be any "home page".
Each time I upgraded FF in the past I had to reapply this extension. But not when I upgraded to 7.0.1. So my assumption was that this had finally been fixed in 7.x.x.
Sorry that I interpreted 'extension' to mean the characters following the final "." in the url.
Re <center-click> - which is a <dbl-clk> on my Logitech mouse - when I <center-click> on the Home icon, regardsless of which tab I am on, or what is currently on the page, everything is cleared and I am returned, while remaining on the current tab, to my home page url, i.e., Google.com and the focus is in the Google search bar, and the address bar is "clean" - www.google.com ( no http:// preamble ).
While trying to refind the "extension" I had been using for new tabs today I discovered the "Tab Mix Plus" extension. Perhaps this will work better than the one I am now apparently using. I assume that I will have to learn how to locate/identify the existing extension to remove it prior to installing Tab Mix Plus.
Am I on the right track here ?

Modified by cor-el

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Odd??? some of my reply has been converting into an operation ( executed ) instead of being displayed as text. Adding spaces to hopefully prevent this I had said : "Re < middle - click > - which is a <dbl-clk> on ...." then later my reply becomes "centered text" for some reason - no clue why