Firefox or other browsers can't change that. Google always uses https now, because it's more secure. http://www.google.co.uk redirects to https://www.google.co.uk. HTTPS must get allowed in your network or you have to use something like http://www.bing.com.

What since 5 days ago?

Then why does firefox load http google sporadically just fine for me now? If I restart the browser enough times, I seem to get http google just fine. Right now I have it open in the other tab. It's just that it seems to do the redirect to https 90% of the time too.

Surely it's not a coincidence that this was working just fine (i.e. http google without redirect) up until a few days ago when I visted the https site? Also I noticed in "about:config" that despite removing the https_everywhere extension (and removing its folder from .mozilla) some references to it remain such as "extensions.https_everywhere.4sevens true", but "extensions.https_everywhere.Google Search default string" hmm....

as long as you're logged into an account, google will always provide a secure connection.

@philipp I'm not logged in.

does it work when you clear all cookies and try to access nosslsearch.google.com?

@philipp: Strangely not. If I type that it still redirects me to `https://www.google.co.uk/?gws_rd=cr&ei=8PA1Ur6MI-K47Aal24HQDg'

It's the inconsistency that I find so strange. Why does http google load fine on some sessions (and then seems to work fine if I open tabs to google or anything else in that session). But then when I close firefox and open it later I'm back to constantly being redirected to https no matter what I do.

Similar recent thread: Google search plugin redirects to https. It wasn't solved. The user investigated a redirect script solution but the rule didn't work and the helper in that forum suggested redirecting to google.com instead (Script to prevent Google redirect to https - Userscripts.org). So, also, not solved there.

@jscher2000 yes that looks very similar indeed to my problem, especially how it didn't seem to happen everytime but often enough to be very annoying. The man difference is I believe that user was using the search plugin bar, whereas I am typing http://www.google.co.uk directly into the url bar and getting the redirect.

I have this same issue and I thought it was a FF bug. But my issue gets worse. Everytime I am on http-google and click on a search result, then hit my back button (or mouse back or keyboard backspace) I get a blank page with just the Google header. When I refresh the page I get my search results back and I am now in HTTPS-google.

I can confirm that the 302 & 304 redirect took place. So am I to understand that this is not FF doing this behavior and it's Google redirecting me. I am not logged in to any google products and I am refusing all cookies, just as a FYI.

If this is Google redirecting, how can I tell the browser to ignore that redirect.

Hi citizen539, for the blank page problem, please see these threads (not solved, but workarounds suggested):

• When I go back to Google search results page, it takes me to a blank Google screen
• Firefox: After a search in Google back button does take me back to resultsant search page

Thanks for the help, I found that this thread in bugs has been the only help so far.

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=908446 [Bug 908446] Google search pages blank with use of back button

In Firefox Safe mode these changes are effective:

• all extensions are disabled
• default theme is used (no persona)
• userChrome.css and userContent.css are ignored
• default toolbar layout is used (localstore-safe.rdf)
• Javascript JIT compilers are disabled (javascript.options.*jit)
• hardware acceleration is disabled

• plugins are not affected
• preferences are not affected

You can try to disable the JavaScript JIT compile by setting the javascript.options.*jit prefs to false on the about:config page.

• javascript.options.baselinejit.chrome
• javascript.options.baselinejit.content