Preventing "best guess" search (Firefox 3)

[macstatic]

I would like to get rid of the search bar in Firefox 3 and instead use the URL bar for searching as well as entering URLs.
Entering a search phrase followed by pressing RETURN works fine as it presents me with the Google search results, but what I don't like is that Firefox also tries to guess where I want to go!

For instance, type mozilla in the URL bar, press RETURN and presto! you've been directed to http://mozilla.org

This page explains how to turn off the above feature (using about:config and setting browser.urlbar.MatchOnlyTyped to true), but it doesn't remove the feature here (Firefox 3.0).
Have I missed something, or is there a better solution that actually works?

 

[clevin]

matchonlytyped is to remove bookmatks from dropdown list.

if you want to use urlbar as search. you need to goto about:config and change the value of Keyword.URL to http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Location_Bar_search

There are also addons (such as searchery) that will display top results of google search at the bottom of the urlbar when you type.

 

[macstatic]

That solved my problem. Thanks!
I also tried the browser.urlbar.MatchOnlyTyped after reading your explanation, and you're right -with it switched to the default false anything typed into the URLbar which matches the name of a previously bookmarked site will pop up as a suggestion. With it set to true it doesn't look through my bookmarks (I'm sure it'll speed up Firefox a bit if there are a lot of bookmarks as well).

Any other useful configurations for the "awfulbar"/"awesomebar" worth mentioning?

Most of these things aren't really documented (or documented in a way for mere mortals to understand), so I hope the developers some day add options for switching this kind of stuff off/on through Firefox's preferences.

 

[clevin]

im sorry, it is sometomes confusing, like right now , lol

I might got it wrong.. more people can try out and report back see what exactly how those settings behave

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Talk:Disabling_autocomplete_-_Firefox

I know for sure to remove bookmark, user are encouraged to use some addons (hide unvisited etc), or set bookmark bonus to zero in the algorithm.

Here is a list of about:config, may or may not be full. http://kb.mozillazine.org/About:config_entries#Browser..2A

 

[macstatic]

Interesting stuff! I'll take a closer look later, but for now I'm very happy about fixing the "Keyword.URL" so that it gives me a complete search result for exactly what I typed.

The last URL you posted (list of "about:config) doesn't work

 

[clevin]

ahhh, my bad, should have tested it

http://kb.mozillazine.org/About:config_entries

Mozillazine knowledge base has alot of information from top to bottom about firefox.