topic Re: Firefox hides search engines – A frustrating change! in Discussions

Firefox hides search engines – A frustrating change!

v3i1x — Mon, 10 Mar 2025 18:37:26 GMT

Firefox team,

I just noticed that the latest update hides search engines behind an extra click. This change makes switching search engines less convenient and slower, adding unnecessary friction to a previously simple action.

Why add extra steps to something that worked perfectly before?
If it ain't broke, don’t fix it!

Honestly, it feels like Firefox thinks I need more mouse-click exercise—but in reality, I just want an efficient browsing experience. This update makes it harder for users who frequently switch search engines.

At the very least, there should be an option to revert to the old behavior where all search engine icons are visible instantly.

Re: Firefox hides search engines – A frustrating change!

siffemcon — Sun, 09 Mar 2025 23:23:45 GMT

You should also post that at https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/ideas/idb-p/ideas.

Re: Firefox hides search engines – A frustrating change!

0x4524 — Mon, 10 Mar 2025 20:10:02 GMT

Hi everyone.

I have the same issue with the new version. I would really love to still have the bar with all search engines as I switch between them a lot.

Was there a particular reason for this change?

Is there any shortcut for selecting the engine to use from the keyboard?

Re: Firefox hides search engines – A frustrating change!

HyPeR92 — Tue, 11 Mar 2025 15:50:54 GMT

Re: Firefox hides search engines – A frustrating change!

username17 — Sun, 29 Jun 2025 07:59:46 GMT

Re: Firefox hides search engines – A frustrating change!

Agentvirtuel — Sun, 29 Jun 2025 08:25:07 GMT

Hello

Is it this subject
https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/address-bar-updates-now-live-in-firefox-nightly/m-p/76176

Search Box: Alt + Up/Down shortcut doesn't work
https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/address-bar-updates-now-live-in-firefox-nightly/m-p/95194/highlight/true#M37154

Of course, it's not the answer expected, nevertheless.

You can try this option, the Search bar to your toolbar.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/add-search-bar-firefox-toolbar

Search bar
https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/search-bar/m-p/98623

You can test, browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.improvesearch.handoffToAwesomebar
https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/address-bar-updates-now-live-in-firefox-nightly/m-p/97642/highlight/true#M38055

Re: Firefox hides search engines – A frustrating change!

v3i1x — Thu, 07 Aug 2025 14:30:49 GMT

At the very least, give us an option to bring the old layout back.

Not every change is an improvement. This one just adds friction for no reason.

Re: Firefox hides search engines – A frustrating change!

v3i1x — Thu, 07 Aug 2025 15:05:07 GMT

Firefox – Fix for New Search UI (via about:config)

browser.urlbar.scotchBonnet.enableOverride = false

This disables the new "search mode" interface and brings back search engine buttons directly under the address bar .

Re: Firefox hides search engines – A frustrating change!

plwt — Sun, 04 Jan 2026 11:59:03 GMT

Just be aware that this pref could change or be removed in the future.

Re: Firefox hides search engines – A frustrating change!

Agentvirtuel — Sun, 04 Jan 2026 12:48:27 GMT

Hello

Firefox advanced customization and configuration options.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-advanced-customization-and-configuration

Firefox is a work in progress and, to allow for continuous innovation, Mozilla cannot guarantee that future updates won’t impact these customizations.

A illustration. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1999334
browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.improvesearch.handoffToAwesomebar has been removed.
https://www.camp-firefox.de/forum/thema/140178-browser-newtabpage-activity-stream-improvesearch-handofftoawesomebar-wurde-entfe

Re: Firefox hides search engines – A frustrating change!

Moilleadóir — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 06:08:21 GMT

This has just gotten even worse. I don’t understand why Mozilla keep redesigning things that work. I use many different searches every day, so this needs to be as frictionless as possible, but it seems like the goal is to make it harder to change search engines. This is so impractical if you need to search multiple different dictionaries for example.

Now in the search box I need to click the X to clear the current engine, then the default engine will show a list of unwanted suggestions, then when I’ve bypassed that I can click again to get the list of search engines. What kind of sadists design this rubbish?

I’ve been using this browser since it existed, but it feels like it has totally lost the plot if you can’t even carry out routine tasks without an overly-fussy UI getting in the way.

Re: Firefox hides search engines – A frustrating change!

Agentvirtuel — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 06:16:01 GMT

Hello

About, browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.improvesearch.handoffToAwesomebar
https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/firefox-labs/please-bring-back-an-option-to-disable-new-tab-search-handoff/td-p/119044

About https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/add-search-bar-firefox-toolbar
https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/update-149-0-made-searching-more-difficult/td-p/120608