This is as much for my own reference as for anyone else, but hey. I use Firefox, and have become accustomed to typing “google whatever” into the address bar to Google for “whatever”. Unfortunately with the fresh install of FF on my new (well, not so new any more) laptop, that stopped working, as Firefox had automatic keyword search enabled, so typing anything in the address bar that wasn’t an address would be turned into a Google search. This meant that “google whatever” would result in a Google search for “google whatever” rather than a search for “whatever”.
The fix: go to the advanced config by typing about:config in the address bar, find the setting keyword.enabled and toggle it to false.
Now, set up bookmarks with keywords – I haven’t time to type that up, so read the recent post on Lifehacker – Fiften Firefox Quick Searches – it’s easy stuff.
Now, things are as they should be. If I want to Google for something, I’ll type “google whatever”. If I want to go to a web address, I’ll type a web address. If I want to look something up in a dictionary I’ll type “dict whatever”. If whatever I type isn’t an address and isn’t one of the keywords I’ve set up, Firefox will tell me that I’m being a muppet – exactly as it should do IMO, rather than just automatically going to Google.
Thanks for the post! This “feature” was bugging the hell out of me.
Cool! I was having this exact same problem the other day and was looking for a solution to it.
Good solution of the problem. It works with firefox, but is there any way to do the same with safari or IE?
Yes, it would be also a good idea to make it work on Sfari, because there are so many people who use mac
“…exactly as it should do IMO, rather than just automatically going to Google.”
I feel the same way about this. Firefox is starting to become bloated with all of its built-in “smart” or “auto” features.
I really wish that Mozilla would concentrate more on security and debugging than adding these new so-called features. This is supposed to be the idea behind add-ons. If I wanted that feature in my browser I would have downloaded it.
It seems that with the release of version 3, I have had to find similar “solutions” to disable these types of features that should have been an add-on.
And, thank you for this post BTW.
Thanks for this! Is it possible to do the same with the “automatic” feature in Google’s search field under FF2.0.0.16? I find it useful to ‘save’ my previous/older searches–to remind myself of things, etc.
They’re all gone now.
I type a letter, the bloody search engine starts ‘helpfully’ automatically narrowing my field of choices with generic suggestions. It’s infuriating. If you come up with a way to get around that, please do let us know! :) cheers!
Great information. Thanks! :)