Search Bar

This article applies to Firefox.

Firefox's Search Bar is a convenient way to search using your favorite search engines. The default is Google.

Using the Search Bar

To search, click in the Search Bar (or press "Ctrl+K") and start typing. Hit "Enter" and your search will be run. You can use "Alt+Enter" to open search results in a new tab.

The Search Bar supports more than one search engine. To see the list of available engines click the icon at the left of the bar, and a list showing the choices will appear. You can also use "Ctrl+Up"/"Ctrl+Down" to cycle between the available choices.

Installing search plugins

To add new search engines to the Search Bar, click the search icon and then click "Add Engines...". You will be taken to the Search Engines page at Mozilla Update where some of the more popular search plugins can be installed. (A more comprehensive collection of search plugins is available at mycroft.mozdev.org.) Click one of the search engine links to install the new search plugin. If you don't see an "Add Search Engine" dialog box, make sure that JavaScript is enabled.

You can always uninstall search plugins you don't want.

• Linux users: On Linux, you will need root privileges, unless you've installed the program somewhere the user has access to. To obtain root privileges, fire up the console and type su (followed by the root password). Then type firefox.

Clearing search history

You can clear the previous searches from the Search Bar. Just right-click it and select "Clear Search History". You can delete individual elements by selecting them and pressing "Shift+Del".

Viewing filtered results from search engines

Google

There is a way to turn Safesearch off in the Google search plugin without setting preference cookies. Simply go to the Firefox installation directory, open up the "searchplugins" folder, open the "google.src" file in a text editor like Notepad and add <input name="safe" value="off"> between <input name="oe" value="utf-8"> and <interpret browserResultType="result">. Then save the file and restart Firefox.

Yahoo

To turn off filtering for Yahoo, go to the Firefox installation directory and open the "searchplugins" folder. Then open up the "yahoo.src" file in Notepad or a similar text editor. Add <input name="vm" value="i"> after <input name="ei" value="UTF-8">. Save and restart Firefox.

See also

• Using keyword searches from the Location Bar
• Resizing the search bar

External links

• Search Engine Ordering Firefox extension
• Mycroft search plugin for MozillaZine Knowledge Base