When you uninstalled FF did you also delete the Mozilla folder so it will be a clean install. Google search lags isn't a FF problem since FF isn't doing the search.

When you say it hangs, what is happening -- search won't submit? blank results page? Firefox frozen?

When you say it loads for ages, do you get the results list, but Firefox seems to be waiting for something more?

Could you test in Firefox's Safe Mode? In its Safe Mode, Firefox temporarily deactivates extensions, hardware acceleration, and some other advanced features to help you assess whether these are causing the problem.

If Firefox is not running: Hold down the Shift key when starting Firefox. (On Mac, hold down the option/alt key instead of the Shift key.)

If Firefox is running: You can restart Firefox in Safe Mode using either:

• "3-bar" menu button > "?" Help button > Restart with Add-ons Disabled
• (menu bar) Help menu > Restart with Add-ons Disabled

and OK the restart.

Both scenarios: A small dialog should appear. Click "Start in Safe Mode" (not Refresh).

Any difference?

Do you have any intermediaries between Firefox and Google? For example: security software that intercepts and filters your browsing, VPN, proxy server, peer network (e.g., Hola), onion network (e.g., Tor).

....... I did a complete clean new installation, all Firefox profile folder were deleted.

jscher2000 said

When you say it hangs, what is happening -- search won't submit? blank results page? Firefox frozen?

By hanging I mean I can't enter another search term while Goolgle is loading results.

It's not Firefox that hangs, it's just the tab in which the search is in progress.

This loading process takes a very long time sometimes.

Like I said after starting Firefox the search behavior is normal, but after a few searches it starts to slow down a lot and sometimes it hangs.

Even if it hangs the search results will come up, but after a long time of waiting.

jscher2000 said

Do you have any intermediaries between Firefox and Google? For example: security software that intercepts and filters your browsing, VPN, proxy server, peer network (e.g., Hola), onion network (e.g., Tor).

No, not at all.

Same thing in safe mode.

It was happening also just after the fresh install without any plugins or extensions installed.

If this is only a Google error, why it works well in Chrome or Edge.

This behavior is only present in Firefox.

Normally the results page isn't very complicated, so this is strange.

Does Firefox show any overlays in the lower left or right corner indicating that it is reading/waiting content from any particular sites?

Can you unfreeze the tab by pressing the Esc key or clicking the "X" icon on the toolbar (the "Stop" button)? If so, and you submit the search again, does it work any better at that point?

Network Monitor

In the Firefox Developer Tools, there is a panel you can open. Then Firefox will show all the requests made to load the current page, including bars for how long each one took to receive. This could help identify a slow connection to a particular server, which might lead us to the source of the problem.

To open the Network Monitor it the lower part of the tab, you can use either:

• "3-bar" menu button > Web Developer > Network
• (menu bar) Tools > Web Developer > Network
• (Windows) Ctrl+Shift+e

When you reload the page, or start a new search in the same tab, Firefox should start listing all the files it is requesting. I'm attaching an example.

jscher2000 said

Does Firefox show any overlays in the lower left or right corner indicating that it is reading/waiting content from any particular sites?

Yes, it starts with "Waiting for www.google.com" and changes to "Transferring data from www.google.com"

Attached a screenshot from "Web Developer > Network" while doing a search that took a long time.

Sorry, but I didn't figure out how to save or export a log from there.

Couldn't replicate the freezing issue of the TAB yet as it does happen only sometimes, but I'll check it out as soon as it appears again,

Thanks for trying to help figure this out.

Thanks for the screenshot; I don't think an exported log would be more helpful.

A 28 second wait to receive the main HTML page of the search results page, and then a 22 second delay to verify that the small logo image in cache is up-to-date, are hard to explain. Does your Firefox connect directly to Google or might there be an intermediary, whether it's a security software filter, proxy server, or network with alternate routing such as peer-to-peer (Hola) or onion (Tor)?

Do you ever see the "suspicious traffic" CAPTCHA page when you're searching?

I do have a VPN client installed on my system, but nothing in Firefox.

This VPN client is turned off most of the time, I'm using it only once in a while when I need access to a website which is blocked in my country.

jscher2000 said

Do you ever see the "suspicious traffic" CAPTCHA page when you're searching?

Yes, when I'm using this VPN client I'm getting this CAPTCHA page on my 1st search.

The VPN client is not installed in Firefox, it's a prgramm on it's own.

It's called : SoftEther VPN

As I said, I'm not using it very often.

The security software on my system is ESET NOD32 Antivirus which I'm using for many years with my own standard settings and they never been changed.

While I'm still trying to get this fixed I found out that when a search starts to load a long time and I click on the X to stop the loading process and then I open Firefox Options > Privacy & Security > Clear History... and then Clear Data... the search process is back to normal speed.

After a few searches the problem starts again.

My security settings are and always were:

History: Clear history when Firefox closes - All options checked

Cookies and Site Data: Accept cookies and site data from websites (recommended) Keep until : I close Firefox Accept third-party cookies and site data : Never

This issue is going to drive me crazy now - Hopefully someone here got an idea on how I could fix this.

....... nobody ? I really would appreciate some help to get this fixed .......

It's difficult to think of what could be changing between the second and third searches. As a shortcut to going to the Options page, if you click the "X" and then reload bypassing the cache -- either

• Shift+click the Reload button
• Ctrl+Shift+r
• Ctrl+F5

-- does that work?

jscher2000 said

• Shift+click the Reload button
• Ctrl+Shift+r
• Ctrl+F5

-- does that work?

....... Ctrl+F5 works.

I thought that after the last Firefox update to version 61 this issue would be fixed, but it didn't.

Uninstalled completely again, I mean completely with no traces left even uninstalled the VPN client I mentioned earlier - No avail.

Just an average Jon Do here, no digital knowledge whats or ever - Knowing only the few clicks everybody does, I guess.

BTW, are you the same jscher as on Dynamic Drive (The Java Script Guru) ?

Just wondering ......

Hi .tommygun., there's a 12-week alpha-test, beta-test cycle for new releases of Firefox, so if the problem is diagnosed and fixed, it would still take some time to get released. The exception is major crash bugs without a good mitigation that affect a lots of users; in that case, they make take the risk of breaking Firefox for everyone else to fix that quickly.

BTW, are you the same jscher as on Dynamic Drive (The Java Script Guru)

No. It would be handy to be a JavaScript guru, though.

....... just to let you know, I did a clean install of Windows 10 1803 not because of the Google search issue, because I had a few things not working properly after the 1803 update and that's why I did a clean install which also fixed the Google search issue.

The only one thing I haven't installed yet is the VPN client , but I will do it later on and if it really interferes with the Google search I'll post back.

I don't think that the VPN client was the culprit because I was using it for a long time and never had any issues which means I have no idea what caused the problem.

Anyway, thanks a lot for trying to help me fix the issue .......