Hello   Zane's Zoo,

This is a temporary fix, but I am hoping that they will change their mind and give us the option to permanently disable this new behavior.

Would you do this please :

Type in the address bar about:config and press Enter.
(ignore the warning)

Type in the search bar and look for the preference :

browser.urlbar.openViewOnFocus

and set its value to false

Do the same with these preferences :

browser.urlbar.update1

browser.urlbar.update1.interventions

browser.urlbar.update1.searchTips

Then close and restart Firefox.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

In case you have a userChrome.css file (or are willing to create one), take a look at this :

https://www.userchrome.org/megabar-styling-firefox-address-bar.html

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

If you don't want to see anything under the address bar at all :

Type in the address bar   about:config   and press Enter.
(ignore the warning)

Type in the search bar and look for the preference :

browser.urlbar.maxRichResults   and set its value to   0 (= zero).

Then close and restart Firefox.

Thank you for a solution and for such a quick response!

I did the first bit and that worked but when I typed in the address bar, it would drop down and show a search option so I did the last bit to bring it to zero and now it seems I have a proper address bar.

That userchrome css file tool looks pretty cool.

Thank you very much!

P.S. I love that mozilla is constantly improving things but I wonder if they are getting their ideas from users and/or how much "focus grouping" is done. I can see where these changes may be a good idea on smaller screens where there is no room for a dedicated Search Bar but I think it would make sense to have a Search Bar turned on cause no searching in the Address Bar (who would want both?). I don't want to sound ungrateful but I've been using the browser since Netscape days and with the customization available, you get used to things just the way you like them so it is a bit of a shock to find them changed with no warning or quick step back.

One thing I really miss is being able to have 2 tabs open side-by-side. If I remember, I had to have an extension installed to do it with the old browser engine and it didn't work with the new engine and I never heard if they rewrote it since. I wish it was a native feature. It is very handy, for example, to compare two webpages or product pages side by side as you scroll each down. It's been years but I still miss it.

Thank you, McCoy and mozilla!

Thank you very much!

My pleasure !

One thing I really miss is being able to have 2 tabs open side-by-side. If I remember, I had to have an extension installed to do it with the old browser engine and it didn't work with the new engine and I never heard if they rewrote it since. I wish it was a native feature. It is very handy, for example, to compare two webpages or product pages side by side as you scroll each down. It's been years but I still miss it.

Just a thought,   but maybe you could start a new thread about this ?
Somebody just might come up with a brilliant idea .....

You can use this link :

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/new/desktop/other

(you'll have to scroll down to the bottom of the page,   but you may already "know the drill")

I just remembered:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/side-view/

It's probably not exactly what you are looking for,   but does it come close ?