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How can I disable searching when typing a question mark in the awesomebar?

  • 4 replies
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  • Last reply by zeroknight

Kevin Cox
Kevin Cox
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I use a lot of keyword search engines. This means I can type something like `kagi foobar` to search Kagi for `foobar`. However the awesome bar has a "feature" where if you type a question mark (?) anywhere it instead uses the default search engine. This means that `kagi How do I cook a turkey?` searches my default search engine for "kagi How do I cook a turkey?" rather than searching Kagi (based on the `kagi` keyword). Is there a way to disable this behaviour?

I have searched about:config and "Search Shortcuts" in preferences doesn't have a `?`. I never use `?` as a shortcut to search (I just type the keyword for the engine I want) so completely removing it would be perfect.

I use a lot of keyword search engines. This means I can type something like `kagi foobar` to search Kagi for `foobar`. However the awesome bar has a "feature" where if you type a question mark (?) anywhere it instead uses the default search engine. This means that `kagi How do I cook a turkey?` searches my default search engine for "kagi How do I cook a turkey?" rather than searching Kagi (based on the `kagi` keyword). Is there a way to disable this behaviour? I have searched about:config and "Search Shortcuts" in preferences doesn't have a `?`. I never use `?` as a shortcut to search (I just type the keyword for the engine I want) so completely removing it would be perfect.

Chosen solution

This should be fixed in Firefox 123 by Bug 1667639.

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All Replies (4)

zeroknight
zeroknight
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You can install Kagi as a search engine and assign it a keyword which is not affected by question marks.

Kevin Cox
Kevin Cox Question owner
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Thanks, that is a good workaround!

Unfortunately search engines don't sync via Firefox Sync while keyword search engines do, so it doesn't work well for my use case.

zeroknight
zeroknight
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You can avoid triggering the default search engine by adding punctuation immediately after the question mark: 

kagi How do I cook a tofurkey?.

kagi "How do I cook a tofurkey?"
zeroknight
zeroknight
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Chosen Solution

This should be fixed in Firefox 123 by Bug 1667639.