How to change search behavior?
For years I have been a big Firefox fan for desktop, but I have an intolerable problem holding me back from using the mobile version.
When I want to do a search and I type something in the Search/Address bar, and hit the Go/Enter button on my virtual keyboard, Firefox tries to connect to a site with an address equal to what I typed in the Search/Address bar. For instance if I type, "best web browser", Firefox unsuccessfully tries to connect to http://best web browser. Every other browser performs a search using your default search provider, which is a better and more logical implementation of the Search/Address bar.
I know how to perform a search, by clicking my search string that appears next to the search provider I want to use for that search. That is a horrible search method, and hopefully not the only way to perform a search using Mobile Firefox. It might be tolerable on phones with extremely small screens, but I have one of the larger phones screens on the market. My wife also came to this same conclusion on her own, and unprovoked. We would both use Firefox, but can not tolerate the search implementation.
In case this problem is device or carrier specific, I have a Verizon Note 3. My Phone is rooted, and if this is a problem caused by Verizon, I would not be apposed to changing a framework file, or whatever I need to do. My wife has a Verizon Galaxy S4, with identical Firefox behavior. I really hope someone can help me resolve this issue, as I have searched on my own and fiddled around for hours to no avail. The tracking behavior of Chrome leaves me feeling nauseated. Please help.
All Replies (5)
I'm not sure why this is different on Firefox for Android than Firefox for desktop. On desktop, if there is a space anywhere in the "address" then Firefox treats it as a search and doesn't try to resolve it as a URL, since URLs are not allowed to contain spaces (unless coded as %20). I think mobile should work the same way, but I'll take a look.
Do you have the keyword feature disabled? If you use Sync, it's possible that this transferred from your desktop Firefox to mobile Firefox. To check your setting on your Android device, try this:
In the address bar, type or paste about:config and tap the Go arrow or tap the Enter key.
I suggest bookmarking the about:config screen for future access.
In the search box, type keyw and tap the Enter key.
If keyword.enabled is bolded and set to false, tap either the Toggle or Reset button to return it to its default setting of true.
Then test your multi-word address bar search again and see whether that fixes it.
Wow, that worked. Thanks a lot.
I would like to point out I never synced anything between my desktop and mobile device. That was just its default behavior. I'm glad I went to the effort of signing up for an account and asking for help. This was not isolated to my phone. My wife's phone exhibited the same behavior. There is a good chance this turned a lot of people off from Firefox for Android.
Thanks again. You made my day.
Glad to hear that worked.
Did you install any add-ons that could possibly have changed this setting? If so, the Add-ons team should require some kind of warning on them!
Hi Grandmastersexsay (and hi jscher2000!)
What you experienced is not default behaviour as far as I can tell. On my unlocked Samsung Galaxy Note 3, I installed fresh copies of Firefox for Android, nightly, aurora, beta and release and all searched correctly. Also tried an HTC one.
I am going to lock this thread. If you experience this again without add-ons and without you changing anything please ask a new question and we'll investigate further.