see this article -> Location bar search

What i think is happening is that http://us.yhs4.search.yahoo.com is set as your default search engine and when you type something (keywords) and press Enter, it searches those keywords on the search engine and displays the search results.

Perform the suggestions mentioned in the above mentioned article. Check and tell if its working.

mha007,

Thank you very much for taking the trouble to consider my problem. I followed the suggestions to modify the about:config files but none of the changes worked. I changed the keyword.enabled, the fixup and the browser.alternate.suffix (with that latter file, I tried changing the .com to .php and when that didn't work I tried deleting the .com entirely, leaving the box blank).

I have now reset the changes I made.

I have one query from your comments. I don't recall ever making Yahoo my default search engine. I don't know how to check this. I looked in the Options tab, but could not see any reference to Yahoo or the setting up of a default search engine. I have had experience in downloading some programs from cnet,com where the download process asks if I want to install a particular company's search toolbar or make a particular search engine my default. I always refuse these requests but I know that some of these vendors are a bit shifty and insert commands clandestinely or surreptitiously.

Could this be a sources of the problem?

regards,

chiron34

To restore your default search engine, see this article -> Diagnose Firefox issues using Troubleshoot Mode

• place checkmark on "Restore Default Search Engines" and click "Make changes & Restart" button

Check and tell if its working.

mha007.

I'm still not having much luck! I went into safe mode and deleted a number of search engines, including Yahoo, eBay, Amazon and a couple more that I had never heard of and didn't know were in my computer. Now, I only have Google & Bing as active search engines.

Unfortunately, this action did not fix the 'localhost' difficulty. I am still being diverted to the AltaVista search results site, despite the fact that Yahoo has been deleted as an included search engine.

have you any other ideas?

chiron34

Perform the suggestions mentioned in the following article:

• What to do when searches take you to the wrong search website

Also see these articles:

• How to fix preferences that won't save
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Preferences_not_saved

Check and tell if its working.

hello, have you tried resetting (righ-click it > reset) the keyword.url prference in about:config to the default too& could you get the site to show up while you where in safemode?

maybe as a workaround you can access the local wp-blog via 127.0.0.1/wp-admin/themes.php ...

mha007, madperson,

Your suggestions are greatly appreciated. unfortunately, i still have not been able to resolve the difficulty.

i have noticed in the 'about:config' file that there are a number of possibly relevant entries in the 'browser.search ...' section. I would like to send you a screenshot of this but I am not sure how to do that in this forum site. Essentially, there are references to Yahoo in this section, notwithstanding that I took action yesterday to delete Yahoo as an installed search engine.

There is also a reference to a 'MyStart' search engine that I have not come across before.

Some examples:

1. browser.search.selectedEngine>user set>string>Yahoo

2. browser.search.order.2>default>string>Yahoo

3. browser.search.defaultenginename>user set>string>MyStart Search

Do these entries in 'about:config' provide any clues?

signing off in hope with a couple of extra grey hairs,

chiron34

-> Start Firefox in -> Diagnose Firefox issues using Troubleshoot Mode to check if your add-ons/extensions are causing the problems.

• Also see this article -> Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems

Check and tell if its working normally while using Firefox in Diagnose Firefox issues using Troubleshoot Mode.

you can also install the searchreset extension that will revert the settings back to the default: https://addons.mozilla.org/de/firefox.../searchreset/

Hey chiron34,

what happens when you enter http://localhost/ as written here, with protocol and slash at the end? Does Firefox's keyword search still kick in?

Also, what does Help > Troubleshooting information say?

--Tobbi

mha007, madperson, tobbi

About 4hours ago, I was in Firefox safe mode. I was checking the half dozen installed plugins for their status to see if any required updating, as suggested by mha007. One did: Adobe Flash. After downloading the update file, I began checking the other plug-ins.

Then disaster struck. My suburb here in Brisbane experienced a sudden and unexpected electricity supply blackout. This is a rare occurrence here and when it occurs, it's usually because some construction worker with a trench digger digs into the ground and cuts the electrical distribution cable.

When the power eventually came on about half an hour ago, I opened Firefox with some trepidation that the sudden close-down in safe mode may have caused some damage. So you can imagine my surprise when I began checking URL entries as suggested by Tobbi to find that the problem has quite miraculously disappeared, as if by magic! I have no logical explanation for this.

I will not completely sign off on this problem, in case the problem returns in the next couple of days.

May I express my appreciation to the three of you stalwarts for taking the trouble to think about this problem and offer some help. I am not skilled in this area and being 70 years old, I was not brought up in a technological age when I was young. If you ever need some help or advice that relates to, or concerns, Australia, please don't hesitate to email me so I can return the favour.

sincerely,

chiron34

Hello to all of You awesome people ready to help others. I have pretty much the same problem with only few differences . I have a Xampp installed on my Windows 7 machine, 64bit, and I am building a website using Joomla on my localhost. Firefox is 15.01

  When I use the website I am working on, everything functions just perfectly except for this 'little' annoying problem. Here are few things I noticed in addition to what chiron34 already mentioned. 
  1. When I put the mouse over the links in the menu they show as this in the status bar of Firefox (down left) :

"localhost/joo_dev/Mamma%20Mia/test-site/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&view=category&virtuemart_category_id=4"

  instead of :

"http://http://localhost/joo_dev/Mamma%20Mia/test-site/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&view=category&virtuemart_category_id=4" .

  And when I click on the links everything functions right. I get to the requested webpage.
  However...:

2. If I would to change something in the parameters of the URL, for example put a "0" instead of the "4" at the end of the previous example (which is btw exactly how I found out about this issue),, then I would get redirected to : google.comlocalhost/joo_dev/Mamma Mia/test-site/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&view=category&virtuemart_category_id=0 and it would actually show up like this - "google.comlocalhost%2fjoo_dev%2fmamma+mia%2ftest-site%2findex.php%3foption%3dcom_virtuemart%26view%3dcategory%2 6virtuemart_category_id%3d0/"

in the address bar.

I hope that this info might supply You with a little more material to work with. I am not sure if that helps, but I sure hope so. For now I can work around this, but its annoying and if You guys would be able to help out with this- it would greatly appreciated. Thank You. ivankruss

PS: google.com is my home website in firefox.

Also, if I would put the "http://" in front of the URL, then everything functions as expected and I land on my local webpage.