Fix location bar annoyances in Firefox

I. If I type “foobar” in the location bar, I don’t want Firefox to think I meant foobar.com:

Turning off Domain Guessing

You can turn off Domain Guessing by changing a preference.

In the Location bar, type about:config and press Enter.
The about:config “This might void your warranty!” warning page may appear. Click I’ll be careful, I promise! to continue to the about:config page.
In the Search field, type fixup.
Double-click the browser.fixup.alternate.enabled preference to set its value to false.

II. (and this is really annoying) If I don’t use a keyword in the location bar prior to entering a string of text, don’t assume I want to perform a search. E.g., if I type “g some words” don’t search Google (my default search provider which has search keyword “g” associated with it) for “g some words”. How totally messed up.

Despite the confusion with the terminology, this setting will not turn off normal keyword searching.

Turning off the web search in the address bar

You can turn off the web search in the address bar by changing a preference.
Note: This preference does not affect smart keyword searches from the Location Bar.

In the Location bar, type about:config and press Enter.
The about:config “This might void your warranty!” warning page may appear. Click I’ll be careful, I promise! to continue to the about:config page.
In the Search field, type keyword.enabled.
Double-click the keyword.enabled preference to set its value to false.