Hey Scott, we keep getting intermittent reports about Google not working in Firefox. I think most of them get a blank page during the search. Is that what you're seeing? Also we're trying to figure out what software everyone has in common that might be causing this. Like NordVPN, Avast, Norton 360 and so on.

I feel like a VPN, antivirus or firewall might be blocking connections to Google. So any security or protection software you're using would give us an idea of what might be at fault.

You can also test this theory yourself by temporarily disabling the antivirus protection for a short time then try to visit Google in Firefox. If that doesn't work, move on to disabling the VPN then testing if Google loads.

Just 2 months ago, we had a huge problem with NordVPN silently blocking Firefox updates for everyone. It took them 2 months to fix the issue. And they had been causing the problem for 5 months I think. They offered no apology & took their sweet time to fix it.

So I really think another software could be involved here. Disable whatever you think might be watching your internet connection. Its really getting crazy how literally any program can insert itself into your web browser and break websites for you.

Anyway would really appreciate a response back from you on whatever you find. Most people post a question here then ghost us. :)

I attempted to help another user with the exact same problem: Google search simply hangs - clearing History & retry works https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1457048

He gave me great details on what was happening exactly but I needed more feedback from him to isolate the problem.

I told him to try disabling the Norton Safe Web addon first. If that failed to fix it, then I asked him to try disabling Norton 360. But I never heard back from him.

Apart of me is also wondering if Google itself is causing this issue to try to frustrate users off Firefox and download Chrome to do Google searches. I have to be suspicious after all the crazy things I've seen Google do. But I'm holding out hope a addon or program is causing the problem.

Hey Scott, we keep getting intermittent reports about Google not working in Firefox. I think most of them get a blank page during the search. Is that what you're seeing? Also we're trying to figure out what software everyone has in common that might be causing this. Like NordVPN, Avast, Norton 360 and so on. I feel like a VPN, antivirus or firewall might be blocking connections to Google. So any security or protection software you're using would give us an idea of what might be at fault. You can also test this theory yourself by temporarily disabling the antivirus protection for a short time then try to visit Google in Firefox. If that doesn't work, move on to disabling the VPN then testing if Google loads. Just 2 months ago, we had a huge problem with NordVPN silently blocking Firefox updates for everyone. It took them 2 months to fix the issue. And they had been causing the problem for 5 months I think. They offered no apology & took their sweet time to fix it. So I really think another software could be involved here. Disable whatever you think might be watching your internet connection. Its really getting crazy how literally any program can insert itself into your web browser and break websites for you. Anyway would really appreciate a response back from you on whatever you find. Most people post a question here then ghost us. :)

Hey Noah, thanks for the quick reply.

I don't get a blank page; basically nothing happens. So I'm on the Mozilla homepage, and I type a search in the address bar or the search bar, and nothing. The page doesn't change, I get no blank page. Just it stays the way it is.

You raised a good point. I did install AVG free probably in the past month, so that could be it. I'll disable it now and see if it makes a difference. I installed Surfshark VPN probably back in December 2023 or January this year, the issue with Google searches not working has been more recent in the past month, so my guess is it could be the AVG Antivirus Free software.

Again, I appreciate the fast reply. I'll aim to update here after a week or so to note any changes.

Scott

I did see something in a forum about clearing the cache, tried it once or twice and it worked once I think, but not most of the time, so I don't know what's up with that.

Anything's possible that Google is doing it on purpose to move people toward Chrome. I've been so frustrated needing to open Edge to search something that for sure, I felt if it doesn't get fixed I'm changing my default search engine.

Fingers crossed! I love Mozilla. Scott

Thanks for the quick replies Scott! Really appreciate it.

Keeping testing and let us know. Really want to offer relief to everyone seeing this super annoying broken Google search issue. No one has time for a weird problem like this when our lives are so busy. I'll keep looking and let you know if I find anything. Sometimes our friends in r/Firefox over at Reddit find solutions very quickly. So I'm going to look over there too.

Hope we stumble on to what's causing this and thanks for your detailed answers. Super helpful!

hi, i've been having the same issue.

been using firefox for years, i've never encountered this problem. i don't use a VPN and i've tried disabling my antivirus to check if it had any effect but the problem remains.

it's so frustrating honestly sometimes i have to go to bing.com or another search engine to search for google to open the website. the search bar also doesn't work (when i'm using google as my search engine, it's fine with bing, duckduckgo, etc.)

Thank you Raven for letting us know everything you tried so far. This "Google search not working from the url bar" bug is driving me crazy trying to figure out what everyone may have in common that could be disrupting Google.

In another thread, someone thought Avast was the cause & after disabling it, Google search was working again but then the problem returned a few days later. It gives me vibes that Google is doing this to themselves somehow.

Some rough ideas I had was seeing if going back to the previous Firefox 128 version helps at all. Or installing the Firefox Nightly builds (these are tester builds of Firefox that get new fixes every day) that are from before Firefox 129 was released to see if we can narrow down which Nightly build shows the issue and which one does not.

For example, my idea was to give anyone interested links to install Nightly builds from specific dates (May 1, 2024 |May 15, 2024 | May 30, 2024 | June 15, 2024 | July 15, 2024) then test each of those builds all day until you see the annoying Google search issue. Then report back here if Google was still busted. Then you would uninstall that Nightly build with the issue & move on to the next one. So we would be working our way backwards until we can find the exact date Google searches started breaking & dive into all the fixes that were added to that day's Nightly build. That way we could see if the fault really is with Firefox.

If Scott & Raven would like to try this idea out, I will post the links to those builds here soon. They will be Windows builds. Raven, are you seeing this Google bug on Windows or Mac?

Firefox Nightly builds: Links incoming

i'm using windows! i tried going back to the 128 firefox version actually but i messed up something with my profiles and it took a hell of a time to recover all my info so i'm not too keen on doing it again. perhaps, someone more experienced than me can give it a go. i don't remember encountering the issue in firefox 128 at least

Same problem here. I have used Firefox for years but now the Goggle search is unresponsive. Like others I did get it working briefly by clearing the history and cache but the problem returns. I don't have any VPN. I have downloaded Google Chrome and started using that again instead of Firefox. I wonder whether the problem will be fixed or not.

Hey everyone I finally stumbled upon a bug report where this exact issue was being investigated. The bug reporter narrowed it down to Avast causing Google not to load. Specifically the "Web Shield" feature. If you all can disable that & retest all your Google searches, it would be really good to know if that helped stop it.

Where Avast got busted for breaking Google searches: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1458528#answer-1669886 I eventually tried Standard8's suggestion, disable Avast AV. Had it disabled for close on 5hrs and have been browsing at various times WITHOUT any issues!

Took a look at the Avast forum and what do you know, others having the same or similar issues running both on the latest versions. Seems that no one from Avast has picked up on the problem though! Anyway my understanding is now that it's Avast's Webshield that's the culprit and it's affecting Google searches along with Gmail reporting no connection and Error #001. No idea why it should be so random in the problems it causes. So currently I've re-enable Avast's shields with the exception of the Webshield.

For Scott, you only have the AVG antivirus so I wonder if disabling that for awhile then testing Google searches could help. I also wonder if AVG has a similar "Web Shield" feature where it scans your browser connections and breaks the Google ones like Avast did.

Hi NoahSUMO! Thanks for not giving up! In fact, I disabled free AVG and since then last week no issues at all. So yes, it seems to be connected to the free Antivirus softwares, not only AVAST but mine was the AVG one, unless they're owned by the same company.

I consider this issue solved on my side. Thanks again for the great follow up Noah! And thanks also everyone for contributing.

Scott

You're welcome Scott! Appreciate you hanging in there & testing out whether AVG was breaking the connections. I think the AVs are trying to do too much by scanning browser connections. Back in the old days, maybe 10 to 15 yrs ago, AVs would ONLY scan files that were downloaded on your computer's drive and were about to execute/open. Then it would detect the suspicious actions, immediately freeze the virus/trojan/malware/etc. and give you a warning popup that a threat was detected & blocked. Then it would ask do you want to delete it or quarantine it.

I don't know why that isn't considered good enough anymore. Especially when they can't get the browser scanning part of it right. It's too complicated and causes these weird website breakages which confuse the users & support helpers.

And we both are thinking the same thing that AVG & Avast might be owned by the same company because how else could they share the same set of blocking rules that break Google searches & other Google sites. So I'm going to look into that. Funny enough, the user in the other thread said he was switching to AVG over this! So now I have to warn him to be careful because he just might see this exact same Google breakage again! 😅

Update: According to Forbes, AVG is owned by Avast! So this "Google searches broken on Firefox" issue must be a lot more massive. Which makes absolutely zero sense to me for one company to own 2 totally different AV brands.

https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/software/avast-vs-avg/ May 6, 2024 Anti-Virus Guard, or AVG, is another top antivirus solution produced by the same parent company as Avast, which can be used to scan for malware and other threats.

AVG also has a "Web Shield" feature. So that means they definitely share the same faulty detection/blocking list as Avast.

So this must mean that thousands of AVG & Avast users are going to be affected by this. I think I underestimated how much of a problem AVG is. It's trying to become the next Google of Antivirus software. It wants to buy out all the competition instead of focusing on not breaking the internet for its users.

Avast mergers: Avast to acquire AVG in $1.3 billion internet security deal - July 7, 2016 https://apnews.com/avast-to-acquire-avg-in-1-3-billion-internet-security-deal-0a2442c1941b424bb56e7792e2009c1d

Avast and AVG become one - October 3, 2016 https://blog.avast.com/avast-and-avg-become-one

Avast also merged with one more company, Norton LifeLock https://www.theverge.com/2021/8/11/22619667/nortonlifelock-avast-merger-deal-anti-virus-cyber-security-software