topic Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult in Discussions

Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

Loyisius — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 22:38:11 GMT

Before update 149.0: I typed a word into the top right search box and then clicked the preferred search engine icon to complete the search. This took two (2) actions.

After update 149.0: When I type a word into the top right search box I then have to click the drop down menu to the left and select the preferred search engine by clicking and then press enter or click the arrow to complete the search. Now it takes four (4) actions.

Last time I made a similar post about this regarding the address bar, I was provided with a partial fix. On 'about config' change "browser urlbar scotchBonnet enableOverride" to false.

Is a similar fix possible here? Can the instant click searching be brought back?

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

Alarm-Siren — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 23:26:19 GMT

Absolutely agree, I think this is a step backwards. Not only is it now more steps to complete the same function, but on any subsequent search if you don't want to use the same search engine as you previously selected (in my case, almost always) you have to clear it first *then* select a new one so 5 steps in total!

Even more bizarre to me, is that this function still exists and works just fine in the main address bar. I don't understand why such a useful feature would have been removed from the dedicated search bar, when it still exists in the address bar. (I might add that I have keyword.enabled set to false so in theory it shouldn't be possible for me to search from the address bar at all, which makes the presence of the search engine buttons on the address bar but not the search bar even more bizarre).

At this point I think the Firefox devs just don't like the seperate search bar, so they're trying to deliberately hobble it. I do understand that most people are perfectly fine with a combined address and search bar, but for me it absolutely breaks my flow. I *never* want a search results page when I type (or mistype) a web address, or vice-versa. They are seperate functions to me, and I want them to be seperate.

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

Agentvirtuel — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 05:15:54 GMT

Hello

Is it, about, Add the Search bar to your Firefox toolbar
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/add-search-bar-firefox-toolbar

A subject https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/1rm5sk3/how_to_change_back_to_old_search_bar browser.search.widget.new

Other subject, 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
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1571609

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

Agentvirtuel — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 06:41:51 GMT

browser.search.widget.new, according to https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2012951

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

kimbastin — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 06:46:27 GMT

Totally agree! This is not an improvement, this is breakage!

The search bar worked perfectly well before, and this update has made it worse, with no benefit at all that I can see.

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

Alarm-Siren — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 07:54:40 GMT

Yes, the browser.search.widget.new (when set to false) does indeed restore the old (correct) functionality of the search bar. So thank you for that, I would never have found that on my own - and I did look!

That being said, its not going to be a permanent fix since the Firefox devs are already threatening to remove the "old code" as per the bug link in your other post: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2012951

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

bradsmithsite — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 10:55:33 GMT

I would consider this a new feature, always give people an option. Instead of using Firefox, I have to find a stupid little hidden setting each time. YouTube alienate there audience by making changes that no one asked for, don't do the same Mozilla.

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

bradsmithsite — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 11:02:41 GMT

This worked, thanks.

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

ukgardener — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 12:44:16 GMT

Totally agree. This makes it much worse. They should have provided a setting within the browser to choose which we want. I would like to revert back to the old way please. Thank you

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

Guillaume41 — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 13:54:18 GMT

I totally agree too. I ended up on this discussion looking for a place to ask Mozilla to backtrack on this.

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

Momaday — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 14:39:23 GMT

Thanks for posting about it OP. I couldn't find your topic so I posted myself about that really unwelcome change in 149. I hope we can keep the search bar the way it was.

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

chazzitdown — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 17:00:59 GMT

What the **bleep** is perplexity and why I need it in my search bar by default? Event that crap is not affected by the block AI thing. It is the second time Mozilla just **bleep** with the search bar increasing complexity when something already works great.

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

Pleen — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 20:59:30 GMT

Glad to find this post, and the fix which worked for me:

about:config
browser.search.widget.new TRUE → FALSE

I was pretty desperate and was about to ask for help here, kudos to those who came before me!

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

Kuni — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 23:05:13 GMT

Voicing my displeasure at the new search bar as well. They've removed the ability to ctrl up/down through your search engine list. Removing it as "old code" shows a horrendous disconnect with usability.

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

Firephex — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 02:06:58 GMT

Ah, thank you so much, the new change is absolutely horrible and bad.

Greetings.

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

Buttcake — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 07:45:38 GMT

The new search bar is an untested and clunky abomination and needs to be reverted to the old one by default. At least, please never remove the browser.search.widget.new pref until the new system has the very same functionality as the old one (i.e.: type stuff -> space saving menu auto-opens -> single click on icon of choice starts search).

Who the hell thought it would be a good idea to turn a perfectly fine and fast workflow into this usability hell?!

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

Robertos — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 15:09:34 GMT

I have only registered to say just that - the new search bar change is really bad. As said before, it takes more moves to make a simple search and even the action of locating a needed search bar from a drop-down list takes more time than in the previous version. And I thought that the change from some time ago which blocked opening the search-engine-retaed website just by clicking an empty field in the search field was bad enough (now I need to type gibberish), now it is 100 times worse 😞

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

DRH — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 20:44:42 GMT

In version 148 and previous the search worked perfectly, quick and easy. Why on earth fix something that was not broken and make it worse. This change is just plain stupid.

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

PaulFirefoxUX — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 21:19:56 GMT

Hello!

I'm a Firefox UX designer, new on the Search & Suggest team (these design changes were made before I joined the team).

The old version was removed as the default because it caused issues for accessibility. (i.e. problems for people who physically can’t use a mouse and have no choice but to use an alternative navigation method).
I'm keen to learn what could be improved about the new design that could make it as good as – or even better – than the old version for everybody.

In the new version, you can press alt-downarrow to open the list of search engines, and type the first letter of a search engine to select it.

Could you go into more detail about anything else that made the old version better for you, and how you would use it?

What is it that you'd miss? The icons being visible by default? The icons not having labels? The icons being shown in a grid? The keyboard shortcuts? How many search engines do you have listed?

If the new menu could show a grid of icons instead of a list, and somehow be pinned open by default (not in its current position of course) then would that help?

I’m here to listen to your feedback and take it back to the team to advocate for your needs. I can’t get it reverted, but I can make other changes.

And again, I wasn’t on the team when this was designed so I’d appreciate your help to make this work better for you.

Thanks!

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

chazzitdown — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 22:54:35 GMT

1. Shift + Enter to go the search page (The "fix" provided to other unsolicited change that before was a simple enter)

2. Reduce unnecessary actions like: (1) search engine selection + (2) enter -> if we are selecting the search engine why do we need to confirm it twice?

3. Keep previous search engines configuration -> Why do we have to configure things that were already done? Why a new search engine was included by default?

4. Required remove selected engine prior to select (2 clicks action) -> Ok, I assume some people just want to return to default search engine clicking the remove icon, but why do we need to perform a double click in the same element/section/area to get a list of search engines? Another (big) group of people just want to change the search engine.

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

joshua3 — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:20:08 GMT

1. When search box is separated, press a single tab to go from address-bar to search box. (control-t, tab, type, enter) Now the workflow is much more complicated from a keyboard perspective.

2. The ability to enter a search term, and middle click on multiple search providers to open multiple searches is absent from the new implementation. This is actually huge to me. I very often want to run the same or similar searches on multiple providers. Sometimes regular search providers, sometimes shopping-related, sometimes I'm trying to find some lost piece of media and need to run a search on up to 10 separate obscure search sites.

3. The ability to type a search term, THEN select a search provider. The new implementation assumes you know what kind of search you are doing before you do it.

4. I'm not sure I understand how the old search box didn't work on alternative inputs. In the past, I would regularly type a search term, decide I wanted to use my second search provider, hit tab twice, then hit enter.

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

Didymus20X6 — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 02:07:41 GMT

I just found this:
https://www.askvg.com/how-to-restore-old-classic-search-bar-in-mozilla-firefox-149-and-later/

There needs to be some way to let users know when something is being changed, and to let them know what they can do to fix it themselves if there's a problem.

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

Didymus20X6 — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 02:05:48 GMT

I just found this: It seems to fix it, at least it did for me:

https://www.askvg.com/how-to-restore-old-classic-search-bar-in-mozilla-firefox-149-and-later/

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

romanpaladino — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 03:26:38 GMT

- I thing I miss the most is the ability to simply click in any of the search engine icons that I've added to the drop-down menu and take me there without having to put a search term.

- Also miss the ability to type a search term then select the search engine from the drop-down menu and clicking on it once. Just once.

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

Didymus20X6 — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 07:42:07 GMT

That link I posted will show you how to fix that.
Basically:
1. About:Config

2. Search for browser.search.widget.new

3. Set it to "False."

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

AmericanLoco — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 14:48:06 GMT

Paul,

As others mentioned, a big one is being able to type in a search term, then choose your search provider. In the old search widget, if you typed in your term, clicked the drop-down and then chose "Wikipedia", it would immediately search Wikipedia.

Now, if you type in your term, select Wikipedia from the drop down, it does not immediately perform the search. Instead it "selects" Wikipedia. Then you need to mouse of and select go, or hit enter. It just adds an unnecessary step and makes the experience feel more clunky than it needs to be. If you are selected Wikipedia, obviously you want to search Wikipedia, so it makes sense to just perform the search on Wikipedia immediately.

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

PaulFirefoxUX — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 19:30:55 GMT

100% agree with you! The engineering team are already fixing this. Watch this space.

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

romanpaladino — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 04:16:42 GMT

Thank you, it did fix most of it.

It didn't fix my first point: clicking on an icon and connecting directly to that website without having to imput a serch term. That ability was lost back in version 137 (I believe). But for now this is a pretty good fix that I can l live with, so thank you for the info.

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

no11 — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 06:12:38 GMT

Is this actually about accessibility, or is it about forcing bad mobile UI on everyone who isn't using a hand held ad feed toy? Maybe mobile users should complain about bad website design instead of expecting Firefox to degrade browser UX just to compensate for their tiny screens.

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

Moilleadóir — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 06:20:14 GMT

And what happens when they remove/deprecate this setting?

Or support tell you to revert your settings? After years of applying these work-arounds, how would anyone remember them all?

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

ToEn — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 06:38:03 GMT

Before Firefox 149, I could search with a specific engine in a single click:
1. Select a search engine --> search immediately with that engine
(The next search would still use the default engine)

In Firefox 149, the flow requires multiple steps:
1. Click the icon to open the search engine menu
2. Select a search engine
3. Press Enter --> search with that engine
4. Manually switch back to the default engine

Please consider restoring the old one-click temporary search behavior.

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

davidn — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 07:10:45 GMT

Great, thank you, this is heartening to hear! It would also be great if the icons for search providers could appear right away on typing or clicking the search box. I think my flow previously was: Type something and click on the search provider icon which was already there (Wikipedia, A translation service). So: Two actions in total.

When you are doing this a hundred times in a day, you really don't want any additional clicks like from opening a dropdown.

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

PaulFirefoxUX — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 10:30:22 GMT

I agree with this too, but that's a slightly bigger change than making the search run immediately so it will take a little longer. I've been prototyping how that would work in its new location.

Not everybody wants to use alternative search engines, so I think it would be a good idea to have an option to always pin them open as you type somehow rather than it just being open by default for everyone.

Thanks again for your feedback!

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

PaulFirefoxUX — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 10:32:48 GMT

Please see my other replies in this thread. The old version won't be restored, but the new version will be updated. Watch out soon for changes in how it behaves like 'search immediately runs when you select a search engine', and a while later for updates that need to change to the way it looks.

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

TGHI — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 19:26:23 GMT

Using the tab key to switch between the address bar and search bar has been the default for 20+ years.

Anyone who approved breaking this behaviour under the guise of "accessibility" should be shot into space.

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

PatrickKing — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:06:23 GMT

Just here to give a quick +1 to this. The new search bar is far less convenient to use. I'd certainly prefer if we went back to the previous UI.

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

PatrickKing — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:30:07 GMT

Hi Paul, I really do appreciate your asking the community about the changes.

I've currently got 14-20 search engines added, between work/personal systems.

I think the original poster captured the core issue with the changes: it takes 4 actions to perform a search with the new bar, where before it took 2. An extra action is needed to open the search engine select control. Previously, making an engine choice and submitting the search were done in the same action, now two separate inputs are needed.

In addition to that, the new search bar now remembers the last used engine, instead of returning to the default. I might send a search to a specialized site now and then, but overwhelmingly I most commonly want to do a web search with DDG. That process now has an extra step in there too, if the default engine wasn't the last one I used.

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

dansco — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 02:10:54 GMT

I want to have a separate address bar, for when I wish to type in an address I have already.

I do not want it to open a search window, unless I ask for in a separate search bar. Can you at least help with that?

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

Antares — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 02:11:33 GMT

If somebody does not want to use alternative search engines then I'd think they already do what we all do with default search engines the browser ships with that we don't want to use: remove them in the settings, so there would be nothing to display there if they have only one engine set.

Please do kindly at least make it clear to the team that until those changes are done and the search bar is back to being as convenient and functionable as it has been before v.149, to please absolutely not remove browser.search.widget.new as had already been proposed in the bugzilla that has already been linked in this discussion.

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

PaulFirefoxUX — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 13:01:40 GMT

Thanks for pointing me to that Bugzilla ticket. I've added a comment to say we should make the fixes before removing that pref. (and I will advocate for this in our meetings too)

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

Antares — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 14:37:29 GMT

Thank you, really appreciate you coming here, talking and listening to us like you do.

Doing exactly that - removing the hidden-away option that allowed people to revert the change - was the only reaction to the massive criticism of the design changes of Firefox Mobile, so this happening also in this situation was a natural fear.

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

LukesMozillaAcc — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 21:41:36 GMT

Agreed. It's not just that there's more clicking involved, but it used to not require clicking at all: ctrl+K to get into the search bar, then tab to change search engine. There's something using alt I got to work for that once, but then I needed to use the mouse to get back to my default search engine next time I needed to find something.

Mozilla, we're begging you to put it back, or give us the option to turn this off.

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

Alarm-Siren — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 21:52:11 GMT

Hi @PaulFirefoxUX

Thank you for taking the time to take on board user feedback. I really appreciate it. I hope the feedback below is useful to you.

I am not necessarily advocating to a return to the old design, I accept a new design could be just as good if not better if done properly, but what we have now is definitely worse, which I will demonstrate further below.

However, the stated reason for the change - to improve accessibility for non-mouse users - doesn't scan for me as the new design is also harder to use by keyboard. Further, if it were such a bad design for accessibility, then why does the main address bar still work basically the same as the search bar used to? I would've assumed that the address bar would've been "fixed" before the search bar given the former is likely used by more people.

Also, you stated that one can use Alt+DownArrow to open the list of search engines. This does not work for me at all. Even if it did, I don't see that as an intuitive feature one would discover organically. Speaking as an avid user of keyboard shortcuts, I would try tabbing and arrowing about (which all work as you'd expect in the old design and don't in the new), but I would never think to try Alt+Arrow.

To demonstrate why the new design is worse for both Keyboard-only users and Mouse users, I will now walk through and compare, action-by-action, the process of searching with one's 2nd search engine, then 3rd, then back to 'default'. In all cases I will use the most optimal input flow I can think of, thus assuming the user doesn't get lost or confused in the UI.

Keyboard Only, Old Design

Ctrl+E (to focus on search bar)
Type search term
Press tab (to select 2nd search engine)
Press enter (to search)
Ctrl+E (to focus on search bar)
Type search term
Press tab twice (to select 3rd search engine)
Press enter (to search)
Ctrl+E (to focus on search bar)
Type search term
Press enter (to search, this will go to the default search engine)

Keyboard Only, New Design

Ctrl+E (to focus on search bar)
Shift+Tab (to focus on search engine dropdown)
Down Arrow (to open the search engine dropdown)
Down Arrow twice (to highlight 2nd search engine)
Enter (to select 2nd search engine)
Type search term
Press enter (to search)
Ctrl+E (to focus on search bar)
Escape (to clear previous search term, and also clear previously selected search engine)
Shift+Tab (to focus on search engine dropdown)
Down Arrow (to open the search engine dropdown)
Down Arrow thrice (to highlight 3rd search engine)
Enter (to select 3rd search engine)
Type search term
Press enter (to search)
Ctrl+E (to focus on search bar)
Escape (to clear previous search term, and also clear previously selected search engine)
Type search term
Press enter (to search)

By my count, excluding typing the actual search term, the Old Design requires 12 key presses, whereas the New Design 24 key presses. Literally twice as much work to achieve the same thing.

Mouse+Keyboard, Old Design

Click search box
Type search term
Click 2nd search engine icon
Click search box
Type search term
Click 3rd search engine icon
Click search box
Type search term
Click search arrow (to search on the default engine)

Mouse+Keyboard, New Design

Click search box
Type search term
Click the search engine dropdown menu (to open the menu)
Click 2nd search engine (to select it)
Click search arrow (to search with 2nd search engine)
Click search box
Type new search term
Click the selected search engine's X button (to clear it)
Click the search engine dropdown menu (to open the menu)
Click 3rd search engine (to select it)
Click search arrow (to search with 3rd search engine)
Click search box
Type new search term
Click the selected search engine's X button (to clear it)
Click search arrow (to search with default search engine)

By my count, the Old Design requires 6 clicks, whereas the New Design requires 12. Again, literally twice as much work to achieve the same thing. Also the "clickable areas" in the new design are quite a bit thinner than the equivalent areas were in old design, requiring one to be slower and more accurate to click the right things.

I will conceed that the new design would reduce the amount of work if your intent is to switch to and use a given search engine for several searches in a row. However, whilst I can't speak for others, that is absolutely not how I use my search bar. I use the default search engine 95% of the time, clicking the others for the odd one-off search every now-and-then. So for me, the search bar "remembering" my most recently selected search engine is usually an active hinderance. Indeed, why even have a 'default' if you have to keep explicitly telling it to go back to the default each time? Perhaps this could be a setting somewhere to allow the user to select their preferred behaviour.

There are two things I can see that the new search bar experience brings to the table:

You can get search suggestions from search engines other than your default, which is not possible in the old design.
You can use @ shortcuts (e.g. @wikipedia) to change the selected search engine, if you have such shortcuts setup.

Both are nice, but not worth the level of clunk in new design, and I strongly suspect both could've been implemented into the old design if desired. If you can preserve these capabilities in the improved new design you're presently prototyping then great, but I don't think they're must-haves.

Also the @ shortcuts are partially broken anyway, as they only work when you don't have a non-default search engine selected. So, once you've used, say, @wikipedia you have to explicitly clear the wikipedia search engine from the search bar before you can select, say, @ecosia in the same way.

Finally, in fiddling with the @ shortcuts, I discovered a really weird bit of UX in the new design. Having no search engine selected (and thus searches go to your default search engine) is not the same thing as having explicitly selected the search engine that happens to be your default. They both send your searches to the same place, but in other ways they behave differently: in the latter case @ shortcuts don't work, and you need to do extra actions to 'clear' the selection back to the default before you can choose something else.

P.S. To answer some of your questions: Yes I think clickable search icons being visible by default (or "pinned" as an option) would solve the issue for Mouse users, and possibly also keyboard users depending how they can be accessed. I am indifferent whether the search icons have labels or not. I have six search engines.

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

PaulFirefoxUX — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 21:52:56 GMT

Hi Luke. There's a config option to revert it, but that won't work forever. We'll be sure to make improvements to it before we remove that.

If it's useful to know, I believe you can still use CTRL+K to get into the search bar, and then you can use Alt+ up/down arrows to navigate the search engine switcher without touching the mouse, Enter to select it (and from release 150 we're changing it so that it should also run the search, whereas today it takes another Enter to run the search).

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

PaulFirefoxUX — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 22:12:49 GMT

Thanks for the detailed feedback. I hear you! I can't address every point in this reply as I've also got a search bar to design 😅 but here are a couple of things:

Accessibility was one of the reasons for the change, but not the only one, and it wasn't about the accessibility of the search box. As I understand it, the icons in their old position made navigating the toolbar more difficult for people who do not use a mouse. I won't go into the details as these replies would become incredibly long, but bear in mind that this would also include people who have their computer read the interface aloud, or people who navigate by voice – it doesn't necessarily mean keyboard users.

Another reason for the change was that introducing the same change last year in the address bar led to a statistically significant increase in the number of users searching with alternative search engines. Our data scientists crunched the numbers: people just weren't finding that feature in its old location. If you're seeing an address bar that works differently to the new design then maybe you have a config setting set that has kept it stuck on an old design. The new design of the search box brought it in line with the address bar (which also means code re-use, so the browser will be less bloated by the same thing being coded twice in different ways).

We already plan to address some of your tangentially related suggestions. For example, I agree that 'search mode' is confusing, where you have selected a non-default search engine, and the search bar works differently as a result. Removing the need to click the 'x' is already in the works.

Leave it with me, and we'll get things back on track soon.

Thanks again!

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

Alarm-Siren — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 22:57:39 GMT

Fair enough, I had not considered (nor do I have any way of testing) the experience for users of screen readers and voice navigation.

Now that you mention it, I do vaguely remember having to change some settings to revert a change to the address bar in the past. I think it was because the newer style address bar doesn't allow me to turn off searching-from-the-address-bar reliably, which is a pet peeve. I never want a search results page because I've mistyped a URL! But anyway, that's not an argument for this thread... 😅

As a developer myself, I totally hear you on code re-use and discoverability. However, I would like to suggest that people who use the separate search bar may do so specifically because they want a different and separate experience to what the address bar offers (as I do). Obviously I don't have access to hard numbers, but as we all know 90% of users stick to the defaults in any program, and the separate search bar is not present in Firefox by default as of many years ago - one has to actively choose to add it via a not-very-easy-to-find customization menu. Therefore I think its safe to assume that the people that do so are already likely to be reasonably capable users, and are much less likely to have missed that they can add/remove/use additional search engines. Basically, as I see it, the separate search bar is already a power-user feature, so perhaps we should treat it as one.

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

TechHorse — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:02:09 GMT

Alarm-Siren, while I agree that there are more key presses needed than necessary, there are ways to decrease them.

Pressing alt+down while in the edit field puts you in the same position as having pressed shift+tab then down. (Although in both cases you will still need a seemingly redundant further keypress to enter the newly opened menu at position #1.)

You can also reduce the need for arrowing by pressing the first letter of the desired search engine.

For example, if while in the edit field you press alt+down then D, this will select DuckDuckGo straight away. (Assuming that there are no other search engines in the list that start with D of course. If there are you may need to press D more times to cycle between them.)

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

PaulFirefoxUX — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:06:31 GMT

Agreed. That's why we're going to improve the standalone search box for power users, to bring back some of the functionality lost in this update without making it a completely different element.

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

PaulFirefoxUX — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:06:58 GMT

It's on our list to make these hidden keyboard shortcuts more discoverable.

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

Alarm-Siren — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 08:39:05 GMT

I did say in my post that I tried Alt+Down and it did not work for me. I also made the point that even if it did work, its not organically discoverable.

Yes using the first letter shortcut would save a keypress, but only if the search engines have unique first letters which isn't the case for me - e.g. Google vs Google Maps search engines are both on 'G'. I was trying to keep my example generic and without assumptions of what search engines they have installed and, tbh, whilst I did know about the first letter shortcut it was only from reading this thread - so again, a problem of discoverability.

Either way I think we might be splitting hairs: we both agree the new design is clunkier than it needs to be.

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

TechHorse — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 13:53:50 GMT

Alarm-Siren, yes the time-saving methods that I referred to do require some advance knowledge. Not everyone will be aware that in many applications and OS elements you can press alt+down while in an edit box to expand a dropdown list, or press single letters to move to items in menus and lists.

But anyway, not sure why alt+down would not work for you. Just a thought but you could try alt+up instead.

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

DRH — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 14:35:41 GMT

Completely agree

The implementation of this function in firefox was the very best, superior to that of any other browser. I have not seen or heard any complaints about it by anyone. If this is something to do with accessibility on the mobile version of firefox why ruin the pc version?

I do not use keyboard shortcuts, good luck to those who do, but I find them slow and awkward, for me the mouse is much faster and easier to use and I cannot remember the thousands of key combinations in all the software that I use.

The new version is awful to use. I have used "about:config > browser.search.widget.new >false" to revert to the previous version but have read that this option will be removed in a future version of firefox. Why? What's the reason for taking away peoples choice? The announcement that the old version will not be reinstated is just the same arrogant behaviour that microsoft often exhibits. This sort of thing is why users desert software they have used for years. Do mozilla want to drive even more users away from firefox?

Thank you

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

Didymus20X6 — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 00:40:10 GMT

How about instead of implementing new keyboard shortcuts, you just keep it the way it was before the change? Why are you TAKING options away from your users? That's what I don't understand. If this was Micro$lop, I would expect this, but not Firefox.

All I used to have to do is type my search, then either hit enter to use my default search engine, or just click the icon of the one I wanted. A two-step process. No alt-arrows, or any of that. Making it more complicated isn't "Accessibility;" it's the exact opposite: it just makes it a pain.

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

Didymus20X6 — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 00:42:11 GMT

Why not? Why take away features that users actually like instead of making them more complicated whether we like it or not? This isn't "Accessibility;" this is just garbage. It wouldn't be so bad, but every now and then, Firefox will just decide on its own to update, even though I have it set not to ever do that. Unless you're going to make the updated feature as streamlined as it used to be, then I don't want it.

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

Kayayayaya — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 21:28:48 GMT

Why do you insist on double down on these decisions that people obviously dislike? I know that people won't be posting when they like the change, but this is obviously not a change that people like. The search bar is already horrible compared to how it was and now it's being made even worse. The option to remove it should be a permanent option at least and I would like to know why it shouldn't be. What could the cost of keeping it possibly be?

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

Charlie_B — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 10:44:21 GMT

Some of this has already been covered by others but:

The fundamental issue is doubling the amount of inputs (2 > 4) needed to run a search, which makes the interface less efficient and more irritating. It seems to contradict a core principle of good UIs.

Another key negative behaviour is making the selected search engine the default. I do most searching through DDG and that should always be the default. When I change engine because I'm searching for a location, lyric, game info etc., I almost never want to search the same place again next time. So I'm being forced to select a search engine every time I search, adding even more friction to the experience.

From a UX perspective the new search is more confusing. Having to click so many times to run a search doesn't make sense - why, having chosen a search engine, would I then have to click another time to run the search? When I first encountered this behaviour I assumed search was broken, and it took me a while to understand what the expected behaviour is.

Having to click to view the list of available search options is also annoying.

Alt+down doesn't help at all. It requires even more inputs, and also that I take my hands off the mouse (many of my searches are C&P).

To answer your questions: don't care about list v grid. Labels are useful but then they're visible when you finally get to the list, so not sure if that's something which has changed. I have 9 search engines I use. Pinning by default would probably be annoying because that's a lot of icons and where would they fit?

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

Wireball — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 20:06:37 GMT

My issue is relatively minor; I evidently have a habit of pressing CTRL+L -> tab to reach the search box, and lately I've been selecting the search *engine* rather than the text field. In my case the issue would be resolved by moving the search engine selection *after* the search text field, but this may impact other people. Probably better if I get used to hitting CTRL+K instead.

Other people's issue with not being able to select the search engine as quickly as they used to is more significant.

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

Didymus20X6 — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 21:00:20 GMT

The real problem is this: you're making the process clunky, and your users are telling you they don't want that. My suggestion is to make the dev team understand that, and don't proceed with killing the old widget. You've already angered users by just introducing the new widget without warning us about it, and not telling us about the procedure to change it back. Now just imagine how angry we're going to be if you change the widget WITHOUT giving us a way to change it back.

Bottom line: Don't be Micro$lop, don't force unnecessary changes on your users.

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

jasomdotnet — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 08:48:01 GMT

Hey @PaulFirefoxUX ,

while we're improving the search in FF, can the UX department make all search engines accesible from the context menu? (now, when I right-click on the highlighted text I can use only the default search).

Thanks.

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

errrm — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 12:51:23 GMT

Regarding accesibility, my current method of using the old search bar doesn't use the mouse at all:

CMD+K - cursor moves to the search bar
CMD+up/down arrows - cycles through the search engines
Type in search term then hit enter.

The new version breaks this method, making it *less* accesible!

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

PaulFirefoxUX — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 12:28:01 GMT

Hi Errrm – CMD+K still works, and if you switch to Option up/down arrows instead of CMD, it should be pretty similar. Still all accessible with the keyboard. We're also going to make other improvements so that it gets better too.

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

PaulFirefoxUX — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 12:29:23 GMT

@Didymus20X6 wrote:

Unless you're going to make the updated feature as streamlined as it used to be…

That's the plan! Or even… to make it more streamlined.

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

TechHorse — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 09:23:13 GMT

Paul, I know that the plan is for searches to take place as soon as a provider is selected from the menu, but will this change be optional?

I personally prefer being able to select a provider before typing a query, or being able to change to a different one while still editing the query, with nothing happening until I press enter. If that is possible.

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

Marty1 — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 11:47:49 GMT

@PaulFirefoxUX
Now that you're fixing the search bar, I'd like to be able to add random search engines to the search bar (like it used to be). I still very much miss that feature (as a long time power user of the search bar).
I know it's possible to add a keyword to a search, that can't be added to the search bar, but that's not as efficient as being able to directly search from the search bar.
I'd also like to be able to add icons to those for the search bar.
For example I'd like to be able to add https://www.jamieoliver.com/search/
to the search bar with the favicon (incon that's displayed in the tab) or be able to add a my own custom favicon if the site doesn't provide one.

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

ole9762 — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 15:43:36 GMT

This is a horrible change, indeed! Hope the devs rethink this one.

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

Marty1 — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 07:44:42 GMT

I found a way to add custom search engines to the OLD ADDRESS BAR.
It seems this functionality is maintained for the new bar. If not, please continue it.
Here's how to go about it:

Adding a custom search engine:
(Works for GET requests and POST requests)

1. Open a new tab and type about:config in the address bar
2. In the search box type: browser.urlbar.update2.engineAliasRefresh
3. Click on the little + symbol on the right. It should look like after you pressed it: boolean true value after pressing plus sign
4. Go to firefox Settings → Search. Or enter this in the address bar: about:preferences#search
5. In the "Search Shortcuts" section you should notice a new "add" button.
6. Press the add button and fill in the name, search engine url and a keyword(optional).
7. Go to the "Search Box" and select the engine you just added.

Note that the engine url should contain a "%s" in the url. Firefox replaces the %s with your search terms. An example of this is https://www.jamieoliver.com/search/%s

(See attached screenshot)

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

Agentvirtuel — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 08:25:25 GMT

Hello

https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/ideas/adding-custom-search-engines/idc-p/99106/highlight/true#M52351

Add custom search engines in Firefox https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/add-custom-search-engine-firefox

A illustration of this https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1574867

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

Agentvirtuel — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 10:21:39 GMT

In Firefox, currently 150, browser.urlbar.update2.engineAliasRefresh, the preference, no longer exists.
No need to add browser.urlbar.update2.engineAliasRefresh.
Add custom search engines in Firefox, it works.

In Firefox 140, browser.urlbar.update2.engineAliasRefresh, the preference already exists, defaut value true. Add custom search engines in Firefox, it works.

Re: Update 149.0 made searching more difficult

GAGA — Fri, 01 May 2026 12:50:02 GMT

I also think the new change is really bad. It makes switching search engines so hard, especailly using a touch pad.

I add some specific search engines to Firefox to search in different content subscriptions of my institution. The reason why I still put the search bar next to the address bar is to switch to some new search engines just by a single click.

This new change in 149 is really horrible for me.