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Address bar "I'm feeling lucky search" feature missing in firefox 4?

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In previous versions of Firefox I was able to type into the address bar and it would perform a "I'm feeling lucky search". For example if I typed "firefox" into the address bar it would take me to www.mozilla.com. This feature seems to be missing in the latest version. Any ideas how to enable this feature again?

In previous versions of Firefox I was able to type into the address bar and it would perform a "I'm feeling lucky search". For example if I typed "firefox" into the address bar it would take me to www.mozilla.com. This feature seems to be missing in the latest version. Any ideas how to enable this feature again?

Réiteach roghnaithe

In Firefox 3.6 it uses Google "Browse by name" search rather than "I'm Feeling Lucky". With the browse by name search, it performs a Google search and if there is a clear match it will take you to the site, otherwise it shows the Google search result. With Firefox 4 it just performs a Google search if you type something which is not recognized as a URL.

To get the Firefox 3.6 behavior on Firefox 4 you need to change a hidden preference.

  1. Type about:config into the location bar and press enter
  2. Accept the warning message that appears, you will be taken to a list of preferences
  3. Locate the preference keyword.URL, double-click on it and change its value to the link shown below

http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&q=

If you prefer, you can also do this by installing the Browse by Name extension - https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/browse-by-name

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All Replies (4)

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Réiteach Roghnaithe

In Firefox 3.6 it uses Google "Browse by name" search rather than "I'm Feeling Lucky". With the browse by name search, it performs a Google search and if there is a clear match it will take you to the site, otherwise it shows the Google search result. With Firefox 4 it just performs a Google search if you type something which is not recognized as a URL.

To get the Firefox 3.6 behavior on Firefox 4 you need to change a hidden preference.

  1. Type about:config into the location bar and press enter
  2. Accept the warning message that appears, you will be taken to a list of preferences
  3. Locate the preference keyword.URL, double-click on it and change its value to the link shown below

http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&q=

If you prefer, you can also do this by installing the Browse by Name extension - https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/browse-by-name

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Many thanks, worked perfectly!

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You're welcome

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It works fine also in firefox 8 ... many thanks