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As you type into the address bar or search bar, Firefox suggests relevant search terms or solution buttons related to the task or answer you may be looking for. When search suggestions are enabled, the text you type is sent to your default search engine. This search engine analyzes the words and displays a list of popular results based on the search term.
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How search suggestions work
If you see a search suggestion that matches what you are looking for, click on it to see results for that search term. This can save time and help you find what you’re looking for with less typing.
Enabling search suggestions will send the keywords you type in a search field to the default search engine – unless you appear to be typing a URL or hostname.
Searches can be entered into:
- the address bar
- the Search bar, if enabled in the toolbar
- the Search bar on the New Tab page
The default search engine may collect that information according to the terms of their privacy policy. Users concerned about this information being collected may not wish to enable search suggestions, or may choose another default search engine that has a different privacy policy.
Search suggestions are disabled by default in Private Browsing mode. You must explicitly turn them on in a Private Browsing window to enable them in that mode. You can enable search suggestions for all Private Browsing windows in your Firefox search settings panel (see below).
Enabling or disabling search suggestions
You can enable or disable Search suggestions at any time. In the Menu bar at the top of the screen, click and then select or , depending on your macOS version.Click the menu button and select .
Select the panel, go down to the Search Suggestions section and then check or uncheck the Provide search suggestions box.
- To see search suggestions in the address bar drop-down, put a check mark next to Show search suggestions in address bar results.
- To show search suggestions before your browsing history, put a check mark next to Show search suggestions ahead of browsing history in address bar results.
- To show search suggestions in Private Browsing windows, put a check mark next to Show search suggestions in Private Windows.
You can enable or disable Search suggestions at any time. In the Menu bar at the top of the screen, click and then select or , depending on your macOS version.Click the menu button and select .
Select the panel, go to the Search Suggestions section and check or uncheck the Show search suggestions box.
- To show search suggestions before your browsing history, put a check mark next to Show search suggestions ahead of browsing history in address bar results.
- To show search suggestions in Private Browsing windows, put a check mark next to Show search suggestions in Private Windows.
- (U.S. only) To show trending searches in address bar results, put a check mark next to Show trending search suggestions.
Search history suggestions
When Firefox finds a match in your previous searches, it may show search history suggestions above the suggestions freshly retrieved from your search site. The suggestions are marked with a clock icon.
In address bar autocomplete matches, Firefox may replace up to two of the search engine suggestions with search history suggestions. The dynamic suggestions are marked with a magnifying glass icon.
For steps to delete individual search history suggestions, or to clear all search history entries, see Clear recent searches from the Search bar. If you do not want Firefox to store previous search terms in search history, you can turn off Firefox's form & search history using the steps in Control whether Firefox automatically fills in forms (“Turn off Auto form fill and prevent Firefox from storing more form entries”).
Firefox solution button suggestions
When you type certain tasks into the address bar, such as to download or update Firefox, suggestions may include a solution button to complete that task directly from the search bar. For example, if you type update firefox a solution button will appear to update.
