The search bar goes way back to before search was added to the address bar. However, many people didn't want to delete the search bar, so it remains as an option.

What would you like the address bar to do if you submit something that isn't a valid address -- just give a message to that effect, don't try to search it? There is a hidden setting for that (separate from search engine suggestions) here:

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button promising to be careful or accepting the risk.

(2) In the search box above the list, type or paste keyw and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click the keyword.enabled preference to switch the value from true to false

Better?

Note that you can also hide search suggestions in the address bar via "Options/Preferences -> Search".

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/awesome-bar-search-firefox-bookmarks-history-tabs
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/remove-websites-awesome-bar-suggestions

(fixed '//' in the second link)

It does look like turning the keyword.enabled setting off solves the issue. Not sure if I described it correctly, but the problem I was having was in trying to get to a website I go to a lot, I was getting a laundry list of (bad) google suggestions first.

Edit: well, no, it didn't solve it actually. What might have worked (sort of) was manually deleting the erroneous suggestions. I tried delete, backspace, ctrl-delete, since I saw them all suggested in different places. They appeared to work momentarily, but then not in other tabs in the same session. Restarting Firefox might have been the solution. Awfully kludgy if that's what worked, and would need to be done for every single website? There's got to be something better. I don't even get what the advantage is of merging the address bar and search bar, to be honest. Just seems like a disorganized mess.

Ah. You can remove the search engine suggestions from the drop-down, or put them below the bookmark/history/open tab suggestions on the Options page, as cor-el mentioned.

I'm attaching a screenshot for reference, and for anyone reading who might not know where that is:

• Windows: "3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Options
• Mac: "3-bar" menu button (or Firefox menu) > Preferences
• Linux: "3-bar" menu button (or Edit menu) > Preferences
• Any system: type or paste about:preferences into the address bar and press Enter/Return to load it

In the left column, click Search and then on the right side, scan down to the Default Search Engine section where you should find the checkboxes for managing search engine suggestions.

That does seem to work. I had looked at those options and not understood them for some reason. I had also looked at the first of cor-el's links, and there was so much on the page I couldn't figure out the relevant part. The second link 404ed.

Anyway, for some reason I hadn't tried the second and third checkboxes there, just the first one. D'oh.

The second link had a double '//' (fixed above)

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/remove-websites-awesome-bar-suggestions
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/change-your-default-search-settings-firefox