It wasn't removed on Windows, so I suspect it wasn't removed on Mac, either. You can check these preferences:

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button promising to be careful.

(2) In the search box above the list, type or paste keyw and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click the keyword.enabled preference to switch the value from true to false

(4) In the search box above the list, type or paste fix and pause while the list is filtered

(5) If the browser.fixup.alternate.enabled preference is bolded and "user set" to false, double-click it to restore the default value of true

(6) Right-click > Reset browser.fixup.alternate.prefix if it isn't still set to www. and browser.fixup.alternate.suffix if it isn't still set to .com

nope, it doesn't work.

with version 49, i set everything in about:config as you mentioned, but if i type "cnn" into the address bar, i get a "server not found" error.

if i use those same about:config settings in version 48, firefox correctly pulls up "www.cnn.com".

so, the setting options are still available in version 49, but they do NOT work correctly.

Hi rwilmott, could you test in Firefox's Safe Mode? In Safe Mode, Firefox temporarily deactivates extensions, hardware acceleration, and some other advanced features to help you assess whether these are causing the problem.

If Firefox is not running: Hold down the option/alt key when starting Firefox.

If Firefox is running: You can restart Firefox in Safe Mode using either:

• "3-bar" menu button > "?" button > Restart with Add-ons Disabled
• Help menu > Restart with Add-ons Disabled

and OK the restart.

Both scenarios: A small dialog should appear. Click "Start in Safe Mode" (not Refresh).

Any improvement?

I gave restarting in safe mode a try, but that didn't change anything - I still get the server not found error.

I also just tried changing the browser.fixup.alternate.suffix to ".net" just to see if it would maybe actually search for "cnn.net". But no, I just get a "server not found....firefox cannot find the server at cnn".

And just to reiterate, version 48 works fine with those about:config settings on both my Mac at work, and my PC at home (different add-ons, different ISP's, etc on each machine). But in version 49, it does not work on either machine, with or without add-ons disabled.

There appears to be some difference in settings that I'm not thinking of.

Could you set up a new profile and configure it the way you like and see whether it works normally there? Here's how:

New Profile Test

Inside Firefox, type or paste about:profiles in the address bar and press Enter/Return to load it.

Click the Create a New Profile button, then click Next. Assign a name like Oct16, ignore the option to relocate the profile folder, and click the Finish button.

After creating the profile, scroll down to it and click the Set as default profile button below that profile, then scroll back up and click the Restart normally button. (Some of the other buttons do not work yet.)

Firefox should exit and then start up using the new profile, which will just look brand new.

If you ignore the standard new install pages, open about:config, and adjust the settings to your preference, does fixup work in the new profile?

When you are done with the experiment, open the about:profiles page again, click the Set as default profile button for your normal profile, then click the Restart normally button to get back to it. If necessary, use History > Restore Previous Session to get back to where you were.

Thanks! Yes, that worked.....a new profile works as it should. Now if I could just figure out how to move all my "autofill" info over to the new profile...is there an easy way to do that?

Your bookmarks and history are stored in a database file named places.sqlite that you could copy from the old folder to the new one. (Firefox should not be running when you replace its files.) This article lists the key profile files in more detail:

Recover important data from an old profile

Alternately, we could try to figure out the issue with your settings. If you are familiar with doing file comparison, I think it would be really useful to compare the regular profile prefs.js with the new one to see whether you or we can spot the culprit. I'm not sure of the best tool for that on Mac.