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Javascript and address bar vs. search/"Awesome Bar"

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To Whom It May Concern:

Hello. I am writing because I have used the blog/search, and the answers do not work. I am trying to ascertain how to:

I. Ensure Javascript is on. (The blog told me to type settings.config directly into the address bar.)

II. Type a web address in and go to it directly rather than having it always search via the preferred search engine (DuckDuckGo). It offers me every option in the Awesome Bar drop down menu (Facebook, Google, Wikipedia, etc.) except going directly to a website. I have already tried turning off the default, "Use the address bar for search and navigation," and switched to "Add searchbar in toolbar." Both still automatically search with DuckDuckGo and do not give any option to go directly to a website. This is incredibly frustrating! I don't want Awesome Bar; I just want an IP bar. What happened to plain old-fashioned Internet browsing, please?

Thank you for advising. I cannot contact Harvard IT about their website requiring Javascript until I ensure that Javascript is enabled.

Pax, Aaron

To Whom It May Concern: Hello. I am writing because I have used the blog/search, and the answers do not work. I am trying to ascertain how to: I. Ensure Javascript is on. (The blog told me to type settings.config directly into the address bar.) II. Type a web address in and go to it directly rather than having it always search via the preferred search engine (DuckDuckGo). It offers me every option in the Awesome Bar drop down menu (Facebook, Google, Wikipedia, etc.) except going directly to a website. I have already tried turning off the default, "Use the address bar for search and navigation," and switched to "Add searchbar in toolbar." Both still automatically search with DuckDuckGo and do not give any option to go directly to a website. This is incredibly frustrating! I don't want Awesome Bar; I just want an IP bar. What happened to plain old-fashioned Internet browsing, please? Thank you for advising. I cannot contact Harvard IT about their website requiring Javascript until I ensure that Javascript is enabled. Pax, Aaron

All Replies (1)

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Hi Aaron, thank you for the questions:

(1) Is JavaScript enabled?

About half the web will complain if JavaScript is disabled. Unless you are seeing the message all over the place, it's probably caused by something else, such as Tracking Protection, an ad blocker, or a privacy add-on:

(A) The shield icon toward the left end of the address bar usually turns a bit purplish when content is blocked. Click the icon to learn more or make an exception. See: Enhanced Tracking Protection in Firefox for desktop.

(B) Extensions such as Adblock Plus, Blur, Disconnect, DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials, Ghostery, NoScript, Privacy Badger, uBlock Origin or uMatrix usually provide a toolbar button to manage blocked content in a page. There may or may not be a number on the icon indicating the number of blocked items; you sometimes need to click the button to see what's going on and test whether you need to make an exception for this site.

Does that make any difference on the problem site?

(2) Disabling URL bar search

If you enter something that looks like a web address -- like example.com -- Firefox should always try the address instead of searching. You can try disabling address bar searching and see whether that was the problem, or whether something else is going on. Here's how:

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

More info on about:config: Configuration Editor for Firefox. The moderators would like us to remind you that changes made through this back door aren't fully supported and aren't guaranteed to continue working in the future.

(B) In the search box in the page, type or paste keyword.enabled and pause while the list is filtered

(C) Double-click the preference to switch the value from true to false

Any difference?

Note that if you click a search engine button, Firefox can still search (the engine name normally will appear at the left of the bar in that case).