The update made my search
An update from about a year ago changed the search tab features, for the worse. But there was a work-around that reverted to the old way.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1035129
And the old way is better: there is a helpful icon constantly displayed to show what site is searched at, and one is able to change the site searched at quickly. Plus, searching with the old way is quicker because instead of (in the updated way) clicking into the search field, moving to the keyboard to type your query, then grabbing the mouse again and clicking what search engine you want, the old way is click into the search pull down and click again to choose your site, then move to the keyboard type query and hit 'enter'. Less back-and-forth, you see.
But most recently the work-around stopped working! Couldn't there be an option in the search preference pane to allow both ways to be available, rather than just one?
Alle antwurden (4)
Many of us are using; Classic Theme Restorer (Customize Australis) {web link} Restore squared tabs, appmenu, add-ons bar, small button view and more on Australis UI (Windows/MacOSX/Linux + Fx 29+).
This will restore many of the things the last upgrades took away.
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=2827985 Classic Theme Restorer - Discussion Thread (v2)
You can right-click a search engine icon in the search engine drop down to set this engine as the default search engine, so you do not need to go to "Options/Preferences > Search" (about:preferences#search).
Well I gave the newer system more time, and found out a quick way to use the different search icons - use the 'tab' button directly after typing in the query to scroll through your hotlinks. then 'enter' when the choice is chosen
This solves the time issue I related to in the first posting.