This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

How to have a different search provider for the search box then address bar?

  • 3 replies
  • 3 have this problem
  • 3 views
  • Last reply by semperaye

more options

I am using google's I'm feeling lucky search for my address bar, and I like that functionality. However, there are times when I want to actually do a search with results....so it would be nice to be able to change the default search engine of the separate search box to something different without changing the search engine in the address bar. I remember years ago when I used Firefox this was possible, but I can't figure it out today.

Thanks for the help!

I am using google's I'm feeling lucky search for my address bar, and I like that functionality. However, there are times when I want to actually do a search with results....so it would be nice to be able to change the default search engine of the separate search box to something different without changing the search engine in the address bar. I remember years ago when I used Firefox this was possible, but I can't figure it out today. Thanks for the help!

Chosen solution

The change making all the various search methods controllable and selectable from the search bar was done for both both convenience and security reasons. Malicious software was changing search features and the average user had dificulty reversing such changes.

If you do use multiple searches you may finds there are addons that help you this one in particular if pretty flexible at setting up multiple independent search methods and probably solves your problems

General information in other help articles

Read this answer in context 👍 2

All Replies (3)

more options

FYI:

I understand that I can click on a different search provider under "search for ______ with:" but that is an extra annoying step. I want to be able to set the search box to a separate default search engine.

more options

Chosen Solution

The change making all the various search methods controllable and selectable from the search bar was done for both both convenience and security reasons. Malicious software was changing search features and the average user had dificulty reversing such changes.

If you do use multiple searches you may finds there are addons that help you this one in particular if pretty flexible at setting up multiple independent search methods and probably solves your problems

General information in other help articles