Hi Steve, is the problem that Firefox is requesting search suggestions for the URL as you tap it in?

You can completely disable dynamic search engine suggestions in the settings:

menu button > Settings > Search

Swipe up until you get to the bottom of the Address bar section.

Tap "Show search suggestions" to turn them off (or on again, depending on how it's currently set).

Does that work on yours?

Thanks very much for responding. I tried changing the Show search settings parameter to off but it didn't change what's bothering me.

On my phone the Firefox address bar always has a Google "G" at the beginning and I interpret that as meaning that when I type in anything, including a URL Google sees it before it's sent along to be resolved and my desired website opened. I can change what search engine begins that address bar but what I want is no search engine there at all. If I type ibm.com I want to go there without Google or any other search engine knowing it. That's how iit works on my Windows desktop version of Firefox.

Please feel free to educate me if I misunderstand how things work, and thanks again, mate.

Hi Steve, the URL in your post triggered spam link moderation, so there's a delay. But I got a preview and the answer is that nothing should be sent to a search engine while you're typing if no suggestions are being requested. What would be the purpose of sending anything??

Thank you, so even though there is the search engine icon, in this case a Google "G" at the lead of the address bar, Google does not see a URL if I type it in there?

If that's the case I suggest the G not appear because I can't be the only one who notices the difference between how my phone and desktop Firefox versions work and worries that my chosen search engine sees everything I type in the address bar.