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Why has the functionality for the Awesome Bar changed in FF 5.0?

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  • Last reply by Helper7677

ebp7
ebp7
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In the last several versions of Firefox, entering a term like"tpm" or "fangraphs carlos beltran" would usually bypass Google results and redirect the browser to the intended page (e.g. talkingpointsmemo.com, www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=589&position=OF respectively). Since I have installed FF 5.0, I notice that these terms direct to the Google results page instead. Is this a change in functionality or a bug? The intelligence of the Awesome Bar was one of the key reasons I have remained a faithful user of Firefox. I hope that this can be remedied. Thanks.

In the last several versions of Firefox, entering a term like"tpm" or "fangraphs carlos beltran" would usually bypass Google results and redirect the browser to the intended page (e.g. talkingpointsmemo.com, www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=589&position=OF respectively). Since I have installed FF 5.0, I notice that these terms direct to the Google results page instead. Is this a change in functionality or a bug? The intelligence of the Awesome Bar was one of the key reasons I have remained a faithful user of Firefox. I hope that this can be remedied. Thanks.

All Replies (1)

Helper7677
Helper7677
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There was a change beginning with Firefox 4 in how Location bar search works.

  • In Firefox 3.6.x, Location bar search uses Google "Browse by name" search. With the browse by name search, it performs a Google search and
    • if there is a clear match it will take you to the site
    • otherwise it shows the Google search result page
  • Firefox 4's default is
    • to perform a Google search and present the Google search results page if you type something which is not recognized as a URL
    • you must type a complete URL, such as www.youtube.com , to go directly to the site

To get the Firefox 3.6.x behavior in Firefox 4. you need to change a hidden preference.

  1. Type about:config into the location bar and press the Enter key
  2. If you see a warning, accept it (promise to be careful)
  3. A list of preferences will open
  4. Filter = keyword.URL
  5. Double-click on that preference in the lower pane
  6. A small window will appear; copy one of the URLs below and paste into the box in that small window (or type it into the box in that window exactly as shown below):

Instead of the above, you could install this extension:

See:



You need to update the following. The Plugin version(s) shown below was/were submitted with your question and is/are out of date. You should update to avoid known security issues with the version(s) you have installed. Click on "More system info..." to the right of your question to see what was included with your question.

  • Next Generation Java Plug-in 1.6.0_24 for Mozilla browsers
  1. Check your plugin versions on either of the following links':
  2. Update the Java plugin to the latest version.


You have old Java Console versions that Java did not clean-up when updating; they can be removed. Follow the instructions below to remove them; it is a manual process. The old Java Console version in your Add-ons > Extensions are:

  • Java Console 6.0.07 {CAFEEFAC-0016-0000-0007-ABCDEFFEDCBA}
  • Java Console 6.0.12 {CAFEEFAC-0016-0000-0012-ABCDEFFEDCBA}
  • Java Console 6.0.13 {CAFEEFAC-0016-0000-0013-ABCDEFFEDCBA}
  • Java Console 6.0.15 {CAFEEFAC-0016-0000-0015-ABCDEFFEDCBA}
  • Java Console 6.0.17 {CAFEEFAC-0016-0000-0017-ABCDEFFEDCBA}
  • Java Console 6.0.20 {CAFEEFAC-0016-0000-0020-ABCDEFFEDCBA}
  • Java Console 6.0.21 {CAFEEFAC-0016-0000-0021-ABCDEFFEDCBA}
  • Java Console 6.0.22 {CAFEEFAC-0016-0000-0022-ABCDEFFEDCBA}
  • Java Console 6.0.24 {CAFEEFAC-0016-0000-0024-ABCDEFFEDCBA}
    • NOTE: this last one may be cleaned-out/removed when to update to the current version of Java (see above)