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How do I stop google search being the default location bar action?

  • 3 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by philipp

jvm1
jvm1
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I just upgraded to 43.0.1.

Often I type something in the location bar, it suggests a Google search as the first option. Previously the default action was to search my history, so I could type e.g. fa-<tab>-<enter> to go to Facebook or I could type the first few letters of a keyword and it would give me a relevant hit from my history.

An example, suppose I want to visit Hacker News. If I type 'n', the default autocomplete is news.ycombinator.com as expected. If I type hacker, I get a google search and the second item on the location bar dropdown is what I actually want (i.e. the URL), requiring a down key and then enter.

Is there a way of reverting to the previous behavior which was to give me a history result as priority and then revert to Google if there were no matches? To be clear the matches are there, they're just not the first items on the list.

I just upgraded to 43.0.1. Often I type something in the location bar, it suggests a Google search as the first option. Previously the default action was to search my history, so I could type e.g. fa-<tab>-<enter> to go to Facebook or I could type the first few letters of a keyword and it would give me a relevant hit from my history. An example, suppose I want to visit Hacker News. If I type 'n', the default autocomplete is news.ycombinator.com as expected. If I type hacker, I get a google search and the second item on the location bar dropdown is what I actually want (i.e. the URL), requiring a down key and then enter. Is there a way of reverting to the previous behavior which was to give me a history result as priority and then revert to Google if there were no matches? To be clear the matches are there, they're just not the first items on the list.

Chosen solution

hi jvm1, you can go back to the prior autofill behavior in the address bar like this (at least still at the moment - mozilla has a tendency to remove these preferences again once a transitional phase for a new feature has been passed): enter about:config into the firefox address bar (confirm the info message in case it shows up) & search for the preference named browser.urlbar.unifiedcomplete. double-click it and change its value to false.

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All Replies (3)

philipp
philipp
  • Moderator
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Chosen Solution

hi jvm1, you can go back to the prior autofill behavior in the address bar like this (at least still at the moment - mozilla has a tendency to remove these preferences again once a transitional phase for a new feature has been passed): enter about:config into the firefox address bar (confirm the info message in case it shows up) & search for the preference named browser.urlbar.unifiedcomplete. double-click it and change its value to false.

jvm1
jvm1 Question owner
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Many thanks, that's perfect. Do you know what the rationale for the change was?

philipp
philipp
  • Moderator
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so far the change has been made for mainly technical reasons as far as i understand it & this has just been the starting point. in the future there may be more improvements in the awesome bar based on this change. http://blog.bonardo.net/2014/07/24/unified-complete-coming-to-firefox-34