What search bar are you using to do these searches?

Is that the search bar on the Navigation Toolbar or a search bar on one of the built-in about pages or some other search bar?

I am using the same search bar that I have used for years, google search ( www.google.com.au), it has always worked, links and searches were opened in new tabs, it stopped working this week. I had the same problem using search bar on Navigation tool bar. Help will be most appreciated Thank you

If you use the search bar on the Navigation Toolbar then you can try to middle-click the Go arrow or use Alt+Enter to see if that opens the link in a new tab.

Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions ("3-bar" menu button or Tools -> Add-ons -> Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem.

• switch to the DEFAULT theme: "3-bar" menu button or Tools -> Add-ons -> Appearance
• do NOT click the "Refresh Firefox" button on the Safe Mode start window

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/troubleshoot-firefox-issues-using-safe-mode
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/troubleshoot-extensions-themes-to-fix-problems