When you have a problem with one particular site, a good "first thing to try" is clearing your Firefox cache and deleting your saved cookies for the site.

1. Clear Firefox's Cache

orange Firefox button or Tools menu > Options > Advanced

On the Network mini-tab > Offline Storage : "Clear Now"

2. If needed, delete the site's cookies here

While viewing a page on the site, right-click and choose View Page Info > Security > "View Cookies"

Then try reloading the page. Does that help?

Also, I think the Ask toolbar (add-on) has been reported to create problems with the links in Google search results. You could try disabling it here:

orange Firefox button or Tools menu > Add-ons > Extensions

A search also turned up an issue with the HTTPS Everywhere add-on: Google links redirect to Google homepage, not the link itself! | Firefox Support Forum | Firefox Help.

You can also do a malware check with some malware scanning programs on the Windows computer.
You need to scan with all programs because each program detects different malware.
Make sure that you update each program to get the latest version of their databases before doing a scan.

• http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php - Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
• http://www.superantispyware.com/ - SuperAntispyware
• http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us/default.aspx - Microsoft Safety Scanner
• http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/defender/default.mspx - Windows Defender: Home Page
• http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html - Spybot Search & Destroy
• http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php - Ad-Aware Free

See also:

• "Spyware on Windows": http://kb.mozillazine.org/Popups_not_blocked

Thanks for your input. Malware/spyware is probably the least likely source of this problem since there was not a problem with google search immediately before the upgrade to Firefox 11. Unless the malware came with the firefox install, that is. In any case, I hadn't noticed the last suggestion of the previous responder about HTTPS Anywhere and disabling that solved the problem.

Well, I tried all of your other suggestions and then finally noticed the last one about HTTPS Anywhere. I followed your link and decided it was worth a try. Disabling it solved the problem! Thanks! (Of course, now I do not have secure browsing but that's going to have to wait for another day.)

The add-on is probably most relevant on unsecured wi-fi connections, especially if you are using sites proven vulnerable to session stealing. In that case, you could use a different search site (such as Duck Duck Go) when the benefits of HTTPS Everywhere outweigh the pain of change.

I added HTTPS Everywhere and started using Firefox 2-3 years ago when reports were coming out about Firesheep and only firefox had a fix for it. This was not for my home network, since it is secure, but for when I'm on the road for my job and must use hotel connections. I'm not completely freaked out by it since I usually have a VPN connection that is secure, but I don't like the possibility. Whatever, it's over now because it won't work with the new firefox + google search combo.