Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

How do I turn on the feature that would take me to a website by just typing in the name (for example, I'd type in "google" and it used to take me directly to Google.com)?

  • 2 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 3 views
  • Last reply by swmurimi

more options

Ever since I updated to the newest version of Firefox, this feature doesn't work anymore.

Ever since I updated to the newest version of Firefox, this feature doesn't work anymore.

All Replies (2)

more options

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.

  1. Type about:config into the location bar and press enter
  2. Accept the warning message that appears, you will be taken to a list of preferences
  3. 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

more options

Oh, that's perfect! Thank you. I'll admit Firefox 3.6 indulged me a bit, and I really loved that feature. Thanks again :)