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.

Avatar for Username

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

Natao arisiva ity resaka mitohy ity. Mametraha fanontaniana azafady raha mila fanampiana.

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

  • 3 valiny
  • 2 manana an'ity olana ity
  • 1 view
  • Valiny farany nomen'i philipp

jvm1
jvm1
more options

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.

Vahaolana nofidina

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.

Hamaky an'ity valiny ity @ sehatra 👍 2

All Replies (3)

philipp
philipp
  • Moderator
more options

Vahaolana Nofidina

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 Tompon'ny fanontaniana
more options

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

philipp
philipp
  • Moderator
more options

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