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Comments on: Firefox magic: Kill your Search box

You might think you like your Firefox Search box, but it's completely unnecessary and redundant. Learn how to replace that functionality by using Quick Searches in the Firefox location bar.

Add a Comment (Log in or register) (17 Comments)

great tip!!
by krishvanth July 20, 2007 11:22 PM PDT: Very useful info! And "yes", I dislike that built in search box as much as you do.

I used to type a search term (eg. "firefox" or "wikipedia firefox") in the location bar and generally got results from google or wikipedia or from the "I'm feeling lucky" section of google (ie. some other website).

But I never realised that one could use keywords like this and search specifically in wikipedia, amazon.com etc.

Thanks a lot for this useful tip!!; Like this Reply to this comment

Nope not really
by spotmctavish July 21, 2007 1:58 AM PDT: Sure it's great... that is if you are the only person using that specific Computer or that everyone else that will, knows about Firefox Quick Searches or cares to remember the short keywords that "you" assigned to the quick searches.

Too much customization screws up a good thing. Standards are a good thing.; Like this Reply to this comment

WHY??? What for?
by jicici July 21, 2007 8:31 AM PDT: Simply put...WHY!! What for? If it ain't broke don't fix it.
My goodness.; Like this Reply to this comment

Handy Addon
by pjrobertson123 July 21, 2007 9:56 AM PDT: There's a handy Firefox Extension/Addon called 'Searchbar autosizer' that will keep the searchbar small until used, and expand to a given length when text is typed in. I use it and it keeps everything looking a lot nicer. Another way to tidy things up is to remove the 'go' button.
Type about:config in a new tab,
filter for browser.urlbar.hideGoButton
change the value from false to true.

The Opera browser adds letters automatically, and it seems a lot easier to search using the address bar with that, lets hope Mozilla add the function in FF3.; Like this Reply to this comment

thanks nice explorer
by hackman_el July 22, 2007 6:06 AM PDT: thanks nice explorer; Like this Reply to this comment

Sounds good but...
by Malfreds July 22, 2007 3:06 PM PDT: I like that bar and I use it very often.
Your guide confused me a little bit btw. :P; Like this Reply to this comment

Wow, thanks!
by turahk_tamer July 22, 2007 10:06 PM PDT: I now feel ashamed to call myself a FireFox user when I don't even know how to use keywords like that. Thank you so much for that info. There are a million search things that I couldn't have in the search bar, but now are just a few keyboard strokes away!; Like this Reply to this comment

Temptation Removal... Wonderful!
by Erik the Beige July 24, 2007 12:01 PM PDT: Being an American in Germany (without the ability to speak German... Army thing) the search engine was annoying in that whenever I used it it would default to Google. Which would be great if it were Google.com, but it's google.de (Deutchland/Germany) with all the search results in German.

I have to go to google.de and change the settings to English manually anyway so this just eliminated the temptation to use something that won't work for me anyway.

Now if you have a way to type in Google.com and have it NOT switch automatically to google.de, that would be wonderful.; Like this Reply to this comment

Re: Erik the Beige
by asonetuh July 24, 2007 2:54 PM PDT: Try typing in www.google.us; Like this Reply to this comment

Much ado about nothing
by Bradlene July 25, 2007 5:00 AM PDT: Speaking only for myself, I like the Search box and use it all the time. I don't, however, like its default size and location, but that's easily remedied ... simply resize it, using the drag bar between the Address box and the Search box. The Address box will get smaller, but that's only temporary.

When the Search box is a size you like (I like a long one), right-click anywhere in the menubar or toolbar (but not in the Address or Search boxes) and select "Customize". Drag the Search box from the toolbar to the menubar and click the "Done" button. Voilà! You now have a Search box that's a usable size, in an area that's not normally utilized for anything, and your Address box will have expanded to use the space formerly occupied by the Search box.; Like this Reply to this comment

Thanks for this tip
by Julie Allen July 25, 2007 10:20 PM PDT: I never use the search box. It's just something I never really look at. I like this option.; Like this Reply to this comment

Used to be finicky ...
by abanerji July 25, 2007 11:27 PM PDT: Well, till about ten years ago, I had this DOS hangover - and that included DOS-based apps like lotus, foxbase, etc. Everything was so precise!

Migrated to Win98 (without going through any of the previous win versions), and was very uncomfortable with the desktop concept itself. But, I pride myself on getting used to something new fast, once I have decided to switch. So, FF with its quick search toolbar is an utility for me, and I have added more search engines to it.

The article was still useful because it allowed me to check whether my awareness of important websites is current enough. Found that I hadn't heard of BoingBoing ... and going by the description, I don't need to either. Only two sites seem outside my net, and I am going to visit last.fm and webware.com - thanks to Peter Butler.; Like this Reply to this comment

Why kill something that works!
by thebug July 27, 2007 6:00 PM PDT: Why would you want to kill something taht you use every day and works perfectly for you?; Like this Reply to this comment

I love my search box
by skiracer712 August 1, 2007 8:08 AM PDT: Easy to use. As much as I use it though, it would be pointless for me to remove it and add shortcuts to the address bar.; Like this Reply to this comment


by dexter_birdbrain November 16, 2007 11:50 AM PST: Hi Peter,

I loved this tip, more so because I really value all the Firefox real estate (read actual content space) available with so many add-ons being used by Me. I actually don't need the location bar to go right till the end, but I want to be able to add more shortcuts/bookmarks/icons on my existing toolbars without compromising on the actual content screen.

Yes, it took Me some minutes to figure out the instructions, but in the end, I used the html file provided by you. I am also bookmarking this webpage in case I need to add some more quick searches in future.

So long the Firefox Searchbar.... :-)

Thanks,
Abhishek alias .Dexter'; Like this Reply to this comment


by DamageIncM April 15, 2009 5:18 AM PDT: What's that about taking up too much room every time I read from this guy?!

First of all, how SMALL is your screen? You're working for an electronics-company aren't you?
I only have a 20" widescreen and I don't seem to have problems with space anymore.

Second, you can (maybe only since more recently) simply drag the box to a size you want.
Mine is even quite long and it doesn't even bother me.

OK, I might have removed one work-bar completely I believe...
Yea, I just removed the bookmarks-bar and placed bookmarks on the navigation-bar
since I don't use many buttons anyway.
But still, I don't have a problem with space...

Oh yeah, TIP: Up the resolution!...; Like this Reply to this comment


by vanderloo April 16, 2009 2:35 PM PDT: So the real reason it is being killed is because you anto edit long urls? Surely not because it's too big, resized it takes about 5 percent of the top bar...!
Must have been a slow news day. A bit annoying that this article was plugged again seeing as it was a non-starter the first time around.; Like this Reply to this comment