Two, possibly related, small but annoying problems
The two problems both involve malfunctions of the "Back" or "Return" arrow at the top left of the screen, and they have both persisted through multiple versions of Firefox--I've been hoping they'd be fixed without my having to come here and whine about it, but I guess not.
The first problem is one that I know Firefox knows about because I saw complaints from others about it a few months ago when it first happened to me and I was looking for a remedy--when you're in a Google Search and you click on a hit, go to the web site, and then click the "Back arrow" to return to the Search page to click on a different hit, Firefox zips right past the page of search results to a blank Google Search box and page. I know that if you hit the "Refresh" icon it'll restore the page of search results, but shouldn't there be a more fundamental fix for this so you don't have to repeatedly "refresh"? You can see how this can get a little annoying after 20 repetitions.
The second problem also involves the "Back Arrow" but in a different way. When I'm on the Major League Baseball site and I'm on, let's say the general stats page, and I click to go to the stat page of an individual player, and then I try to return to the general stats page, I cannot--the "Back Arrow" is unresponsive. This was true all of last season as well, so multiple versions of Firefox have had this problem. (In previous years this was not a problem with Firefox.) Let me be clear--the Back arrow does work otherwise on that site, it's just going from an individual's stat page back to the general stats page where it doesn't work. And I must point out that this is not an issue with Chrome, I can return to the general stats page without any difficulty in that browser. And the Google Search page return is also not a problem in Chrome. Please don't take this the wrong way-- I'm not saying this to belittle Firefox, just to indicate that the problem definitely lies with the browser and not with the web site.
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Hi graviton37, regarding the MLB website, the problem is that when you go to a page such as http://mlb.mlb.com/team/player.jsp?player_id=400284, the page immediately redirects you to http://mlb.mlb.com/team/player.jsp?player_id=400284#gameType=%27R%27. Therefore, when you press back, you get redirected back to the same page. The only way around this is to quickly click back repeatedly or to right-click the back button and select the stats page from the menu. Google Chrome however seems to detect that this redirect will not allow you to go back, so goes back to the page before that (I'm assuming this is how Chrome works, as its back button seems to behave the same as Firefox's in all other situations). Therefore this is something Firefox could do to improve upon.
Regarding the Google website issue, in both Firefox and Chrome I have only managed to replicate the problem once (in Firefox) and this is only when I type in my search terms and some results come up before I've hit enter. I then immediately click one of the results. I noticed that the URL doesn't change until about 4 seconds after you finish typing or you click a result (whichever happens first), in which case the URL immediately changes again to the page you clicked a link to. The new URL is only different in that it ends in #q=yourSearchTermsSeparatedByPluses which is used to remember what you searched (so that the page is the same when you go back). Therefore, I think the problem is caused by the other page's URL (the one you clicked a link to) loading before the Google URL changes to the one ending in #q...
If this is the case, I can see most people considering this issue to be Google's fault. This being the case would also mean that there is no solution to the problem other than to wait four seconds after you finish typing before clicking any of the results.
Even the superb detective Hercule Poirot was always forced to exclaim "Quel imbecile!" a few times (referring to himself) before he, eventually, successfully unraveled whatever mystery he was seeking to solve. But clearly the even more superb Firefox sleuth WilIP has no such necessity! He proceeds swiftly to a solution with not a moment of self-reproach needed!
Damned good work, m'boy! But as for me, plenty of self-reproach is called for! My own crude observations regarding the Google Search problem merely told me it did not invariably occur, only most of the time. But due to my own intellectual laziness (which ought to, and does, embarrass me) I didn't attempt to distinguish between the occasions it did and didn't, foolishly attributing it to random quirkiness on the part of Firefox and leaving it there instead of investigating the way you did. I really thank you for making up for my own shortcomings.
But here's the funny thing, WilIP--I immediately went to Google Search to observe for myself what you described and for the first time in many months, no matter what I did I couldn't make Google Search supply search results before my either clicking "Search" or clicking on one of their suggestions! I must have spent fully twenty minutes with every variety of search term, but it always produced a set of suggestions and never offered results, or on one occasion didn't produce any suggestions but still didn't offer results--no matter how long I waited! Needless to say, I haven't changed any settings--I have no idea why this suddenly started happening. But, at least for now, a spontaneous healing has occurred!
And regarding the MLB problem--I had forgotten about what happens when you right click the Back Button. Now that you've reminded me, that's a fine solution, not too onerous at all. So thank you for that.
A little further investigation revealed the explanation for what so puzzled me! So, I didn't know that whether Google does or doesn't show what they call "instant results" depends on the speed of your computer at that moment. Evidently when I was experimenting earlier my speed was too slow. So now all I have to do is turn off Google's instant results to prevent the Firefox page skipping from happening. Or else just wait a few seconds before clicking on a result.