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

Wannan tattunawa ta zama daɗaɗɗiya. Yi sabuwar tambaya idan ka na bukatar taimako.

Before I upgraded to 4.0, I could type, say "pandora" into the address bar and it would take me to the website, but now that I have upgraded the same action takes me to a google search for the word pandora. What gives?

  • 1 amsa
  • 2 sa na da wannan matsala
  • 9 views
  • Amsa ta ƙarshe daga TonyE

more options

Before I upgraded to 4.0, I could type, say... "pandora" into the address bar and Firefox would take me directly to the website. Now that I have upgraded, the same action takes me to a google search for the word pandora. In my opinion, this is a downgrade! What gives? Can I fix it?

Before I upgraded to 4.0, I could type, say... "pandora" into the address bar and Firefox would take me directly to the website. Now that I have upgraded, the same action takes me to a google search for the word pandora. In my opinion, this is a downgrade! What gives? Can I fix it?

All Replies (1)

more options

The change between Firefox 3.6.* and Firefox 4 is how location bar search works. In Firefox 3.6 it uses Google "Browse by name" search. With the browse by name search, it performs a Google search and if there is a clear match it will take you to the site, otherwise it shows the Google search result. With Firefox 4 it just performs a Google search if you type something which is not recognised as a URL.

To get the Firefox 3.6 behaviour on Firefox 4 you need to change a hidden preference.

  1. Type about:config into the location bar and press enter
  2. Accept the warning message that appears, you will be taken to a list of preferences
  3. Locate the preference keyword.URL, double-click on it and change its value to the link shown below

http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&q=

If you prefer, you can also do this by installing the Browse by Name extension - https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/browse-by-name