Firefox Address Bar Search Glitched

[Meomix]

When i type a single word in the firefox address bar like "turnip" for example, instead of going to google search to search for the word it returns a blank page of http://turnip/ instead.

Yet when i type more than one word lets say like "turnip boots" in the address bar it resolves itself to google search successfully.

How do i fix this issue? I've reset my about:config, deleted the prefs.js and clicked the reset firefox button at about:support to no avail.

Another thing i noticed, if i type a well known string something like "redd it" (with spaces in the middle) it redirects me to www.reddit.com, but if i type "reddit" it still gives me a blank page though.

[megido-rev.M]

I don't really get it either.
It might be related to the search bars and history you have, because I got a wiki page for the turnip.

[Bob2004]

For me it just Googles it. Even if I type in something like Reddit, where I'm sure it used to take me straight to Reddit at one point, long ago, it just Googles it instead. So maybe there's some kind of setting somewhere to control this behaviour? I dunno. what version of Firefox are you using?

[megido-rev.M]

'Reddit' just puts me on Reddit.

[Bob2004]

Got it. It took about 2 minutes of Googling to see how to fix your problem, Meo.

Go to about:config, search for the option Keyword.URL, and change its value to "http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&q=" (no quotes). If you just want it to go to a normal Google search, rather than the website you type in, remove the "&gfns=1" bit from that url.

[buchno]

'Reddit' just puts me on Reddit.

Does FF auto-complete it to reddit.com?
For me, FF has always used the default search engine whenever the string hasn't been a URL or FF hasn't auto-completed it, ie "reddit" goes to Google.

[Bob2004]

'Reddit' just puts me on Reddit.

Does FF auto-complete it to reddit.com?
For me, FF has always used the default search engine whenever the string hasn't been a URL or FF hasn't auto-completed it, ie "reddit" goes to Google.

I have no idea why the default seems to be different for different people, but the advanced option I mentioned is what defines the behaviour of the address bar. It just tells it the search provider to use, and what url to use for searching. When FF automatically jumps to the relevant webpage (ie. going to reddit.com if you type reddit), it's because it's using Google's near-field search (or whatever it's called), which automatically picks the best website, if there clearly is one, and redirects you there. Changing the URL to remove that just uses normal Google search; or you can put in Yahoo or whatever to use that instead.

But it's really weird how it seems to behave differently by default for different people, even though none of them have done anything to set its behaviour. I wonder what could be causing it.

[xShadow]

Aye,  I've had this too. My laptop and desktop computer,  and even different installations of the same OS on the same comp...  Firefox address bar did differently on all of them. They really gotta fix that...  Or give users an option  as to what they want it to do on first boot of the browser. Thanks for the link btw...  I had no idea how to fix that shit (also didn't care enough but might as well now).

[buchno]

I have no idea why the default seems to be different for different people, but the advanced option I mentioned is what defines the behaviour of the address bar. It just tells it the search provider to use, and what url to use for searching. When FF automatically jumps to the relevant webpage (ie. going to reddit.com if you type reddit), it's because it's using Google's near-field search (or whatever it's called), which automatically picks the best website, if there clearly is one, and redirects you there. Changing the URL to remove that just uses normal Google search; or you can put in Yahoo or whatever to use that instead.

But it's really weird how it seems to behave differently by default for different people, even though none of them have done anything to set its behaviour. I wonder what could be causing it.

Is keyword.URL supposed to be blank if I haven't touched it?

[megido-rev.M]

Maybe, possibly something else too.

[Bob2004]

I have no idea why the default seems to be different for different people, but the advanced option I mentioned is what defines the behaviour of the address bar. It just tells it the search provider to use, and what url to use for searching. When FF automatically jumps to the relevant webpage (ie. going to reddit.com if you type reddit), it's because it's using Google's near-field search (or whatever it's called), which automatically picks the best website, if there clearly is one, and redirects you there. Changing the URL to remove that just uses normal Google search; or you can put in Yahoo or whatever to use that instead.

But it's really weird how it seems to behave differently by default for different people, even though none of them have done anything to set its behaviour. I wonder what could be causing it.

Is keyword.URL supposed to be blank if I haven't touched it?

It was in mine, too. No idea what it uses instead.

[megido-rev.M]

I remember at one point the bar went through some search page I never even heard of.
Started with an 'A' I believe.

[Soryon]

Hmm. Not a fix to the problem, but...

address bar auto completes address I have previously gone to or just used as normal, second is google search bar (can be changed to w/e search site you prefer.)
I didnt know the address bar was supposed to do that, but I never really cared either.

[Meomix]

Got it. It took about 2 minutes of Googling to see how to fix your problem, Meo.

Go to about:config, search for the option Keyword.URL, and change its value to "http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&q=" (no quotes). If you just want it to go to a normal Google search, rather than the website you type in, remove the "&gfns=1" bit from that url.

It didn't fix anything, but googling about the auto complete behavior some people mentioned on this thread lead me to this page. Disabling browser.urlbar.autoFill in about:config stopped it from going directly to the website instead of google.

It didn't fix the main issue of it turning up a blank page when i enter one word though.

[Duki3003]

In about:config change keyword.url to http://www.google.com/search?q=
and keyword.enabled to true

If it doesn't work you can always bypass it by typing "g some_word" in the address bar