Firefox’s Google Search Box
I know some people who are using Firefox hate to see the search bar on the right of the browser, especially if they are not using the default search engine. If you are one of them, I suggest that you just replace Google with the search engine of your choice, instead of removing the search bar.
Just click on the Google logo, and choose among the websites displayed which you like to be your primary search engine in Firefox. Pick Yahoo, Amazon.com, eBay, Wikipedia, or Answers.com. If your favorite site is not included in the default choices, you can add it by clicking Manage Search Engines.
On the Pop-up, click the ‘Get more search engines’ link located at the bottom of the window, and you’ll find out more options; there’s AOL.com, Live.com, and Ask.com. Then add to Firefox the site you want to use, let’s say Live.com. Once it’s added click on the Google logo again, and choose Live.com. Now, your primary website in the search bar is MSN’s Live instead of Google.
The Firefox’s search bar is actually a handy feature. You don’t have to type the search engine’s url in the address bar to start your search. Instead, you just go directly to the box, and type in your keywords. Once you hit enter, viola, the results you needed are in the page.
So Firefox, why Google is the default search engine?
Now that you know you can in fact replace Google with your favorite search engine like Yahoo or Live.com, don’t you wonder why Firefox has Google as it’s default search engine, when it’s not a Google product anyway but Mozilla’s?
Well if not for Google, Firefox may have not become as popular as it has been today, and has not earned millions of dollars. Some bloggers though think that this obvious favoritism of Firefox is unfair, not only to the consumers but also to other search engines.
So while Firefox still loves Google, you only have two options: remove the search box or change the box’s default search engine to the search engine of your choice.
How to Remove/Add Autofill on Google Toolbar
It’s not all the time that we are using our own computer right? Or maybe someone else are using our computer and change something there. So sometimes, we notice that we are losing buttons on our Google Toolbar, or having new buttons. So in this post, I am sharing to you how to disable or enable the autofill button on your toolbar.
On Toolbar for Internet Explorer 5
Click the wrench button, which is just beside the sign in button. Once you clicked it, the toolbar options window will appear.
On the toolbar options window, click the autofill tab and uncheck the box to disable. If you want to enable just check the box. Click the save button after.
On Toolbar for Firefox
Click the settings button, found on the right of the toolbar.
Go to Options, and the Google Toolbar Options will appear.
Then uncheck the box for Autofill to disable, and just check it if you want to add the autofill button on your toolbar. Click OK after.
Note:
If however, you did follow these steps and still didn’t see the autofill button, just click the two-arrows on the toolbar, and you will see the autofill button there.
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Related articles:
- Save AutoFill Profiles in Google Toolbar
- Google Toolbar: Your Spam Blocker Tool
- Google Toolbar Links You to Your Favorite Sites
Disable Google Instant Suggestion Feature
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If you are using Internet Explorer with the latest Google Toolbar.
All you have to do is look for the wrench, which is the toolbar options panel. The wrench is located at the right corner of the google toolbar.
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Click the wrench, (the blue one beside the square button) and a new window will appear.
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Uncheck the ‘Suggest searches as you type’.
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Then click save.
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If you are using Mozilla Firefox with Google Toolbar, these are the steps to disable the feature:
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Click the settings button on the right of the toolbar.
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Then go to Options.
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Click the ‘Search Box Settings’ button, which is on top of all the buttons on the window that will appear.
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Uncheck ‘Suggest Popular Searches’ to disable the instant suggestion feature.
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You can also uncheck ‘Suggest searches from my search history’ if you really don’t want Google to suggest whenever you type on that search box.
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Click the OK buttons.
From Toolbar Firefox Help Center: ( I added this on April 6, 2008)
Please note that Google Suggest is separate from the Toolbar’s drop-down search history feature. If you’d like to clear your search history automatically when you exit Firefox, simply follow the instructions above, and un-check the box next to “Save the search history across browser sessions.”
To entirely disable the Toolbar’s drop-down search history, please visit http://www.google.com/support/firefox/bin/answer.py?answer=45143 for detailed instructions.
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If you are using Firefox without the toolbar, you can also disable this feature.
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Click the Google button on the left of the search box on Firefox.
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Click ‘Manage Search Engines’
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Uncheck the ‘Show search suggestions’.
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Then click OK.
Related posts:
How to Remove Google Search Box From Firefox
I already blogged about how to remove the search box in Google Toolbar for Firefox, but there are some users who didn’t install the toolbar, and just want to remove the Google Search Box from Firefox. Though the steps are the same, my previous post may be unclear to those who are not using this specific toolbar. So to remove the search box, here are the steps:
First, right click on any part of the toolbar then choose customize. A new smaller window will appear with a lot of icons in it. You will also see a hand cursor. Move this hand cursor over the search box, and then grab the box into the icon window. Then click done. After doing these steps, the box is gone in your Firefox browser.
Below are ‘before’ and ‘after’ screenshots:
Before
After
Below is a video tutorial for removing the search box
Related Articles:
- Firefox and Google Toolbar, a Perfect Combination
- How to Remove the Search Box in Google Toolbar for Firefox
- Firefox’s Google Search Box
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