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keyword search hijacked

  • 2 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by kufkof

kufkof
kufkof
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For a long time I was happily using the smart keyword search. E.g. I had assigned custom searches to the letters "d","e","w". All of a sudden, they lead to different destinations. Whatever I tried to change them back - no luck. Please do not suggest editing the bookmarks or right-click/edit in the search toolbar - these actions have no effect. I have searched all the files in the profile folder as well as in the program directory for the urls. No result. Must be hardcoded or something. I don't want thefreedictionary.com, ebay.com and english wikipedia for these letters! What can I possibly do? Revert to an older FF version?

For a long time I was happily using the smart keyword search. E.g. I had assigned custom searches to the letters "d","e","w". All of a sudden, they lead to different destinations. Whatever I tried to change them back - no luck. Please do not suggest editing the bookmarks or right-click/edit in the search toolbar - these actions have no effect. I have searched all the files in the profile folder as well as in the program directory for the urls. No result. Must be hardcoded or something. I don't want thefreedictionary.com, ebay.com and english wikipedia for these letters! What can I possibly do? Revert to an older FF version?

Chosen solution

cor-el thank you for your perfect answer, I had tried all this before. The solution was different - an add-on of course, stupid me, sorry!

I had installed "Fasted search" (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/fastest-search) in quite a hurry because of an urgent need for its Tab Search function, so I did not realize its quite obvious connection to search engines... Embarrassed. Thanks again.

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All Replies (2)

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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How did you assign these keywords?

Did you create a bookmark or did you assign a keyword in "Manage Search Engines > Edit Keyword"?

The data used by the latter is stored in the search-metadata.json file in the Firefox profile folder.

Try to delete the search.json file and a possible search.sqlite file in the Firefox profile folder to reset the search engines to the default.

Firefox will rebuild the search.json file from the default search engines in the "browser\searchplugins" folder in the Firefox program folder and the searchplugins folder in the Firefox profile folder.

kufkof
kufkof Question owner
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Chosen Solution

cor-el thank you for your perfect answer, I had tried all this before. The solution was different - an add-on of course, stupid me, sorry!

I had installed "Fasted search" (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/fastest-search) in quite a hurry because of an urgent need for its Tab Search function, so I did not realize its quite obvious connection to search engines... Embarrassed. Thanks again.