Is there any way to go back to how alternate search engines in the address bar worked before?
Firefox recently changed how search engine keywords work in the address bar. From the "What's New" tab in my browser:
"Now, when you type a search engine or specific site into the address bar, a blue shortcut will appear in the search selections beneath. Select that shortcut to complete your search directly from the address bar."
Is there any way to undo this and go back to how this worked before, without those blue shortcuts?
Opaite Mbohovái (2)
In the new design, you can Shift+click a search engine button to immediately submit the address bar contents to it.
If you don't want to hold Shift when clicking the buttons... there is a temporary preference you can flip to revert the button behavior. This exists in Firefox 83-84, but I don't know how long we'll have it.
(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button accepting the risk.
(2) In the search box in the page, type or paste update2 and pause while the list is filtered
Firefox should display all the preferences related to the current round of changes.
(3) Double-click the browser.urlbar.update2.oneOffsRefresh preference to switch the value from true to false
That should take effect immediately.
Oh, wait, I think you are referring to the item that appears among the suggestions. I've stopped seeing that in my regular profile, but I think it's this other temporary preference:
(3) Double-click the browser.urlbar.update2.tabToComplete preference to switch the value from true to false