So you decided to download megaupload’s toolbar (or any other intrusive toolbar)?
After you finished installing your shiny new add-on you realize that it has set all of firefox’s search engine defaults to Yahoo (or sometimes AOL depending on the toolbar). No problem, you quickly set Google as your default search engine again.
You start typing in a website address and it turns out to be incorrect. Easy fix, Google will correct the problem and redirect you to the proper site. WRONG
You find that you have been redirected to a Yahoo! or AOL search result page. Now what do you do? How do you change it back?
Instructions:
1. open firefox, type in “about:config” in the keyword box (address bar).
2. search for “keyword.url”
3. right click on the URL and select “modify”
4. copy and paste one of google’s three ways of searching:http://www.google.com/search?btnI=I%27m+Feeling+Lucky&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=
Google’s “I’m Feeling Lucky” (default pre-Firefox 2.0)http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&q=
Google “Browse by Name” (Automatically takes you to sites with a clear match, else performs a Google search) (default in Firefox 2)http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=
Google Search (Google search results page)
more info here:
http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Location+bar+search#Changing_the_keyword_service
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Keyword.URL
I have recommended that people download megaupload’s toolbar to take advantage of the unlimited downloads. But this is one of the unfortunate pitfalls (now you know how to fix it, so no complaints).
March 25, 2008 at 6:15 pm |
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April 19, 2008 at 7:00 am |
Awsome thanks for posting that. I have wanted to know how to change firefox’s search engine defaults for years but I actually thought it would be buried in the registry somewhere.
May 17, 2008 at 10:02 pm |
Thanks a lot.. I just hate Yahoo search..and it feels great to have dear old Google Back
July 3, 2008 at 4:55 am |
Thanks, I reinstalled firefox and didn’t remember how to set this.
July 9, 2008 at 12:17 am |
ok. you are my hero. a cousin installed yahoo messenger on my computer and it jacked up all my settings. so ive been stuck with the hooooorrible yahoo for like 3 months
September 29, 2008 at 1:39 am |
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October 27, 2008 at 10:43 am |
Thank you very much. I hate Yahoo! I installed Megaupload Toolbar (horrriiible toolbar–dont do it) and those sneaky SOAB took jacked up my Firefox settings. Hey Yahoo! nobody messes with my Firefox! F U ! It is very unprofessional. Yahoo sucks
November 3, 2008 at 5:01 am |
Firefox team needs to put a lock on settings like this where the consumer would have to approve the change to this entry. You POS companies that try to hijack these settings only get people to ignore you even more.
November 4, 2008 at 1:05 pm |
thanks.
i wasnt installing megaupload toolbar though,
i was bored and tried to install a stupid email
client called ‘incredimail’ which truly was a
piece of crap i thought it will be. success.
it f* my firefox up pretty badly, which made
it suck even more.
this fixed it, thank you.
December 2, 2008 at 9:39 pm |
Excellent, tyvm, I had a hard time finding a change for the URL SEARCH, which some people do not seem to understand the difference between this and the toolbar search, which is child’s play to change. This is the perfect solution for a minimalist like me who keeps 2 rows of toolbars and uses the toolbar search for wikipedia. Thanks again.
-Legendmaker
December 27, 2008 at 5:48 pm |
Re making Google my default search engine, when I put “about:config” in the address bar, the dialogue box said, “This might void your warranty! Changing these advanced settings can be harmful to the stability, security and performance of this application. You should only continue if you are sure of what you are doing.”
Should I continue and click “I’ll be careful, I promise!”?
December 31, 2008 at 11:28 pm |
Yes Rod, click it and follow the remaining instructions. “Ask” search was getting on my nerves.
January 23, 2009 at 6:47 am |
death be to live search!
January 23, 2009 at 6:48 am |
thanks v. much btw
February 1, 2009 at 5:25 am |
Thanks soooooo much! I really appreciate it! I was trying to get google as the default search browser and you helped me so much!
Thanks again!!
February 19, 2009 at 12:54 am |
THANK YOU!!! I have been trying to change it from the AIM Search forever and nothing helped. THANKS!
March 1, 2009 at 11:58 pm |
Thanks it work Good
March 11, 2009 at 2:47 am |
Good information, I would like to know about the internet explorer – actually what happened is, in URL some other search is set now I want to remove it so Do you know how to remove that setting for IE?
March 13, 2009 at 8:37 am |
last minute airfare is focused on under should not .cheap flights from .cheap flights to turkey from uk cheap tickets to jamaica this ticket to dubai also cheap tickets to england should not ticket from europe Is the travel deals worldwide tour discount .is the same as charter flights to cancun ought to For ought to cheap bus fares it contain delta airline flights .which contains all of the airlines from chicago to florida without The now west jet airlines .
May 2, 2009 at 10:14 pm |
THANK YOU!!!!! THE ONLY THING THAT WORKED!
May 3, 2009 at 5:44 pm |
Thanks
May 4, 2009 at 8:38 pm |
omg i luv you thank you
<333
May 8, 2009 at 4:13 pm |
Thanks so much! I’ve been looking for this in forever.
May 15, 2009 at 12:29 am |
I really wanna thank you for helping me,Ive been in deep search on the net and no website has told me so clearly than this.THANKS
May 28, 2009 at 1:56 am |
Zomg! Great help and most definitely worked. I installed ask.com toolbar (f**king sucked) by accident… clicked too fast on a program install and missed the hidden ask.com toolbar install
. This worked perfectly!
May 28, 2009 at 1:56 pm |
Awesome! Thanks!
May 29, 2009 at 12:27 am |
THANKS! YOU ARE THE CAT’S MFing PAJAMAS! ATT Yahoo DSL service reconfigured a bunch of shit on my laptop, but most maddening was stripping away my “im feeling lucky” and replacing it with some piece of shit from last decade. Thanks again!
June 20, 2009 at 2:18 pm |
You’re a life saver. Thank You! It is so annoying when installs do that. The latest version of AOL (9.1) didn’t even even ask me, The nerve. I was so pissed. Thanks again.
June 29, 2009 at 4:52 pm |
Fantastic! Thanks very much!!
July 9, 2009 at 9:08 am |
Thank you for posting this! I had updated some software and it asked if I wanted to install the ask.com toolbar, I said NO but it installed it anyway and set my default searching site to ask.com I HATE ASK.COM (even throw I don’t know what it is) I am on Google’s side!
July 13, 2009 at 4:02 pm |
Thanks a lot! (I hate Yahoo)
Also just noticed that you can just right click the keyword.URL entry and select “reset”. This will revert back to the original browser default.
July 25, 2009 at 3:45 pm |
Thank you so much!
This really helped me, as I had no idea how to change the URL search back from Yahoo to Google.
August 12, 2009 at 7:55 pm |
Mine will not change no matter what we do. It is stuck on Yahoo and will not modify. What can we do?
August 16, 2009 at 12:24 pm |
i have tried to change my search engine this way, but it always goes back to this stupid yoog search. it works for a few minutes then resets. is there anything i can do?
August 18, 2009 at 9:02 am |
Great post, thanks. I installed BS player and it changed my default Google search engine to its own one, which, actually was google powered but I didnt like it, so thanks alot:)
August 26, 2009 at 4:42 am |
AWESOME!! THANK YOU!!!!!
August 31, 2009 at 7:30 am |
thank you so much F**K that Ask! search and Ask! toolbar… F**K all the Ask!…
September 28, 2009 at 1:20 pm |
This does not work! The instructions were followed exactly! When the computer was restarted, the defults went back to YAHOO instead of GOOGLE.
October 4, 2009 at 1:23 am |
it works for me…..
thanks buddy………..
October 30, 2009 at 11:07 pm |
cool beans dude! thnx
November 4, 2009 at 12:52 am |
Thank. Frickin. Lord.
Down with yahoo search!
November 6, 2009 at 2:19 am |
thanx a lot for this………sum non sense MYWEBSEARCH was accidentally been set up as default on my mozilla…… now i’m really happy that everything is back as normal…very very thank you……..
November 10, 2009 at 10:22 pm |
Thanks, your instructions were clear and precise and it worked perfectly.