I just have to say to the people at Mozilla that this new search thing just SUCKS! I hate you.

In the address bar, type about:preferences#search<enter>

If you miss being able to switch search engines without going crazy with menus, try this out;

Context Search {web link} Expands the context menu's 'Search for' item into a list of installed search engines, allowing you to choose the engine you want to use for each search.

You can revert the search engine change from Google to Yahoo in the Firefox 34.0.5 by toggling browser.search.isUS to false. Note that only 34.0.5 changes the default search engine to Yahoo!.

• https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/34.0.5/releasenotes/
• https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/34.0.5/releasenotes/

//
lockPref("browser.search.isUS", false);

See also these prefs:

• browser.search.defaultenginename
• browser.search.defaultenginename.US

Noticed with FF v37 that changing 'browser.search.is.US' to false within mozilla.cfg or about:config no longer resets the default search from Yahoo to Google.

Have also tried modifying 'browser.search.defaultenginename.US' within About:config to any search provider, but the preference is not saved. However changing search provider thru the UI will then update about:config.

Question: so how to modify mozilla.cfg in FF v37 to set default search provider to google?

Type about:preferences#search<enter> in the address bar.

Choose your the primary engine.

thanks for the response - however I need to set this preferences for several users (enterprise deployment). I'm looking for an option within mozilla.cfg to set this preference. Previous to FF 37, adding the below lines worked:

pref("browser.search.defaultenginename", "Google"); pref("browser.search.defaultenginename.US", "Google"); pref("browser.search.isUS", false);

With FF 37, the 'browser.search.defaultenginename.US' appears to no longer be functioning as before in previous versions.

This pref may need a special treatment in order to work.

• http://mxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-release/source/browser/app/profile/firefox.js#387

394 // Market-specific search defaults (US market only)
395 pref("browser.search.geoSpecificDefaults", true);
396 pref("browser.search.defaultenginename.US",      "data:text/plain,browser.search.defaultenginename.US=Yahoo");

thanks for the post - so to be clear, the special treatment meaning some code revision?

I tried adding the above string to mozilla.cfg & switching 'Yahoo" to "Google", but it still defaulted back to Yahoo:

pref("browser.search.geoSpecificDefaults", true); pref("browser.search.defaultenginename.US", "data:text/plain,browser.search.defaultenginename.US=Google");

Does it has effect if you set browser.search.geoSpecificDefaults to false to disable this check?

• lockPref("browser.search.geoSpecificDefaults", false);

You can check comments in the source code to see how Firefox determines what search engine to use.

• http://mxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-release/source/toolkit/components/search/nsSearchService.js

Yes sir - changing the value of 'browser.search.geoSpecificDefaults' to false did resolve the issue - Google is now set as the default search provider:

pref("browser.search.geoSpecificDefaults", false); pref("browser.search.defaultenginename.US", "data:text/plain,browser.search.defaultenginename.US=Google");

Thank you!