In Firefox 3, I could type history search terms in the URL bar and pressing enter would take me straight there, bypassing Google. How can I get 4 to do this?
I could even search within websites this way, say by typing France wiki and it would take me the wikipedia page for France, even if I had never gone there. (Or sometimes, if I did a search with the term wiki, it would take me to a specialised wiki for that topic, even if I'd never been to that site before.
I don't really get how this feature worked, but can I turn it on for firefox 4?
Chosen solution
The change between Firefox 3.6.* and Firefox 4 is how location bar search works. In Firefox 3.6 it 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. With Firefox 4 it just performs a Google search if you type something which is not recognised as a URL.
To get the Firefox 3.6 behaviour on Firefox 4 you need to change a hidden preference.
- Type about:config into the location bar and press enter
- Accept the warning message that appears, you will be taken to a list of preferences
- Locate the preference keyword.URL, double-click on it and change its value to the link shown below
http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&q=
If you prefer, you can also do this by installing the Browse by Name extension - https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/browse-by-name
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Chosen Solution
The change between Firefox 3.6.* and Firefox 4 is how location bar search works. In Firefox 3.6 it 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. With Firefox 4 it just performs a Google search if you type something which is not recognised as a URL.
To get the Firefox 3.6 behaviour on Firefox 4 you need to change a hidden preference.
- Type about:config into the location bar and press enter
- Accept the warning message that appears, you will be taken to a list of preferences
- Locate the preference keyword.URL, double-click on it and change its value to the link shown below
http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&q=
If you prefer, you can also do this by installing the Browse by Name extension - https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/browse-by-name
Did you type in the wrong link there? That's the google search home page. Putting that in about:config just takes me to that page whenever I search for something that isn't a URL. The add-on looks good however, thanks.
That is the right link, if you copy the link into the keyword.URL preference it will do the same as the add-on.
Changing that preference honestly doesn't work for me, I don't know why, and I followed your instructions carefully. But the add-on does exactly what I want. Thanks for your help.