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 stop Firefox from prefixing "www." in the address bar?

  • 8 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by hackerdorm

more options

Hi : )

I want to search from the address bar. When I type in "fire" and hit enter, it goes to a page saying the IP of "www.fire" can not be determined. I've already set "browser.fixup.alternate.enabled" to "false". However, when I type more than one word (say "Is fire hot?") in the address bar and hit enter, I'm directed to the Google search result page.

So how to make Firefox direct me to the Google search result page when I only enter "fire"?

Thanks guys!

Hi : ) I want to search from the address bar. When I type in "fire" and hit enter, it goes to a page saying the IP of "www.fire" can not be determined. I've already set "browser.fixup.alternate.enabled" to "false". However, when I type more than one word (say "Is fire hot?") in the address bar and hit enter, I'm directed to the Google search result page. So how to make Firefox direct me to the Google search result page when I only enter "fire"? Thanks guys!

Chosen solution

Glad it is working again.

We often say Firefox is highly customisable with many addons available.

That has the downside that odd and unexpected effects and interactions can sometimes occur.

Read this answer in context 👍 0

All Replies (8)

more options

I guess I could say the primary purpose of the addressbar is to go to addresses, whereas the primary purpose of search bar is to search for information.

The simplest methods are to use the Search bar that by default is to the right of the addressbar, or the search option on the default homepage.

  1. Use popular search suggestions in the Firefox Search bar
  2. Also see Address bar autocomplete suggestions in Firefox

The pref mentioned by you, and the second article browser.urlbar.autofill does not change the address bar to behave as the searchbar.

more options

Thanks John! But the reason I want to search using the address bar is that when you open a new tab (which is a blank page), the default focus of the cursor is the address bar. So instead of pressing Cmd+K to switch to the search bar, start typing the stuff I want to search right in the addr bar is much a breeze!

Modified by hackerdorm

more options
more options

I missed an important point that you made. You are saying you pressed enter after entering the search term fire

That should result in the address bar using the default search engine (or whatever is set in the Search bar). Something is going wrong.

Maybe you have been changing other things or have some addon causing this problem. First of all try in Firefox's safe mode by for instance holding the shift key as you use the Firefox start icon, or by restarting with addons disabled

Secondly if that does not help then try creating and testing with a new additional profile.

more options

Hey christ1, I actually read this article before starting this thread : ) I tried everything in that article but none worked...

more options

John99 thank you! : ) Problem fixed. But I'm still wondering why that problem occured. Will try to figure it out. Merci!

more options

Chosen Solution

Glad it is working again.

We often say Firefox is highly customisable with many addons available.

That has the downside that odd and unexpected effects and interactions can sometimes occur.

more options

Yep I watched a documentary of Mozilla Firefox in which there was an interesting line (not verbatim) "since programmers just do their own modules of Firefox and then they gather and piece the modules together, so when the final thing works everybody cheers but none knows how". Haha, dat's cool : )

Modified by hackerdorm