Join the AMA (Ask Me Anything) with the Firefox leadership team to celebrate Firefox 20th anniversary and discuss Firefox’s future on Mozilla Connect. Mark your calendar on Thursday, November 14, 18:00 - 20:00 UTC!

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 do i get a different search on the search bar from the home page

  • 6 replies
  • 3 have this problem
  • 17 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

more options

In the new versions of Firefox (23 and up) the search bar at the top is locked to the default home page search. This is useless to me as i like to search IMDB from the search bar, but when I do, all my home page searches search IMDB as well. Before I was able to use the homepage to search google and the search bar to search IMDB or whatever else I chose without affecting the homepage search. PLEASE tell me how to separate the two. Thanks very much

In the new versions of Firefox (23 and up) the search bar at the top is locked to the default home page search. This is useless to me as i like to search IMDB from the search bar, but when I do, all my home page searches search IMDB as well. Before I was able to use the homepage to search google and the search bar to search IMDB or whatever else I chose without affecting the homepage search. PLEASE tell me how to separate the two. Thanks very much

Chosen solution

If you want to use different search engines then you can install the Keyword Search extension to specify with search engine to use for the location bar and which search engine to use for the about:home page via the Options/Preferences windows of this extension, accessible via the about:addons page (Firefox > Add-ons).

Read this answer in context 👍 1

All Replies (6)

more options

The search engine which is selected in the Search Bar is used there, on the default Homepage, and in the Location Bar / Address Bar.

If that isn't to your liking, look for an extension that changes it.

more options

What does that mean, "look for an extension that changes it."? What is your suggestion, some sort of add on? In previous versions of Firefox, the two were not linked. My question was, how to I separate them like they were before? Is there no setting in about:config?

more options

Extensions, themes, plugins = Add-ons

Sorry, I don't know how to change it to what it was before Firefox 23. Hasn't been an issue for me.

more options

Chosen Solution

If you want to use different search engines then you can install the Keyword Search extension to specify with search engine to use for the location bar and which search engine to use for the about:home page via the Options/Preferences windows of this extension, accessible via the about:addons page (Firefox > Add-ons).

more options

Thanks so much to Cor-El. That solved the problem. It amazes me that Mozilla keeps taking features out of firefox. I have been using it since version 3. Its too bad that they can't put a toggle in the preferences to turn back on what they have turned off with a new version. Many Many thanks. I can now move on from version 22!

more options

You're welcome

  • bug 738818 - consolidate Firefox search preferences

Please do not comment in bug reports
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/page.cgi?id=etiquette.html