[LINK] Why does Firefox send non-URL text in the location bar to Google etc.?

[Alex (Maxious) Sadleir]

On Mon, Jan 3, 2011 at 3:47 PM, Robin Whittle <rw at firstpr.com.au> wrote:
> If most people don't know, or don't care about information leakage
> like this, then its a worry.  I didn't know about it and at present I
> don't know how to stop it.
A scary number of people don't even use URLs or bookmarks - they just
type the words "facebook login" into their address bar/search engine
and click on the first result. Unfortunately at some point that first
result changed from facebook.com and instead pointed to a popular blog
as they document here:
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/how_google_failed_internet_meme.php

> I couldn't find where in the settings for Firefox to control this
> pernicious behaviour.
Firefox hides a lot of power user settings under a special URL
"about:config" so as to not unnecessarily confuse the above mentioned
demographic.
To disable the "keyword search" feature:
1. Enter "about:config" into the Firefox address bar, hit enter, and
accept the warning message that appears
2. Enter "keyword" into the "Filter:" box
3. Double click on the preference "keyword.enable" so it's value
changes to "false".
If an invalid URL is entered (has spaces etc.), instead of a Google
search being launched the message "The URL is not valid and cannot be
loaded." will appear. If a single word is entered Firefox will attempt
to access http://www.word.com  (eg "facebook" becomes
http://www.facebook.com). You can also alter the URL (preference name
"keyword.URL") to point to an alternative search engine, as the Yahoo
toolbar does. The keywords are appended to the URL specified.