How to avoid URL entries from being passed to Search Engine Topic is solved

[krishna12]

I brought up a new system - Server 2016 - and installed PM V. 27.2.1 64bit.
Whenever I enter, in the URL bar, a random string or an illegal URL, that entry is passed on to the default Search Engine as a search string.
I want to stop that behavior, and to just get a message of either illagal URL or "server not found".

In the "Manage Search Engines" choices I un-ticked "Show Search Suggestions", restarted PM, but this did not help.

Could not see any relevant entries that I can set in the Options/Adv. Options menues or in about:config.

How can I stop this string passing behavior?
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My addons:
NoScript V. 2.9.0.14
PaleMoon Commander V. 1.7.3
uBlock Origin V. 1.12.0

[Pallid Planetoid]

If I type in an incorrect URL I get the usual "Server not found" message.

1) If an entry starts with "http...." in combination with a ":" then it is assumed to be a URL so the browser will attempt to find a webpage matching what you have entered.

2) If you include the domain for an address, i.e. ".whatever" and the there is no URL address that matches that domain you will once again get the 'Server not found" message.

As I understand it, anything other than 1 or 2 is presumed to be a string (search).

To clarify, you want the address bar to only expect URL's and not do any "search" strings.

[Pallid Planetoid]

I would have though perhaps either of these two options might have helped, but for me it makes no difference disabling either/both:

no help.png

[Pallid Planetoid]

I'm noticing a lot of boolean URL bar preferences among a few others as well that look potentially promising (click to enlarge for readability):

boolean preferences for URL.png

[wyMnNHXB]

I believe that the behavior you describe can be fixed by turning "keyword.enabled" in about:config to "false"

[krishna12]

Thank you for replying.

Yes, I wish that any typed string in the urlbar would not be "searched".

The 2 options that you show in the User Interface panel are related to past URL entries only, not to a non-URL string that never been registered ny the browser before.

Re the option in the about:config, I looked at them (see my OP) but did not see anything relevant based on their name.
There is a chance that one of the obscure names listed them would do the trick though, so if no one can provide a more definitive answer, I might go a scrutinize those entries to a greater depth.

[krishna12]

Yes! keyword.enabled = false did the trick.

Thanks!

[Pallid Planetoid]

I was about to suggest try setting browser.search.suggest.enabled to "false", but found the question is resolved....never would have known keyword.enabled would necessarily have to do with the address bar.

.... talk about what is "... relevant based on their name", this one doesn't fit the bill either...

[Pallid Planetoid]

I like that, decided to incorporate this preference setting as well and see how I like it since I've already got a search bar (which is what I use to search), hence it seems redundant to search from address bar too.

[wyMnNHXB]

Off-topic:
Pale Moon Rising, it is still possible to search from the address bar using search prefixes (for some reason called "keyword" in FF/PM). Go to "Manage search engines", set a keyword (for instance, "gg" for Google) and type "gg" before the search query.

[Pallid Planetoid]

Off-topic:
Pale Moon Rising, it is still possible to search from the address bar using search prefixes (for some reason called "keyword" in FF/PM). Go to "Manage search engines", set a keyword (for instance, "gg" for Google) and type "gg" before the search query.

You would then think that the preference keyword.enabled would have to do specifically with this "keyword" search function based on the "keyword" that the user had presumably setup i.e. your example "gg" and would not have anything to do with random text entered into the address bar. But as we find, keyword.enabled set to "false" disables all text entered into the address bar from being "searched" (unless as you have pointed out keyword(s) have been setup).

In other words, I would have expected keyword.enabled to toggle between enabling/disabling the "keyword" search function as you have described here and would not have anything to do with random text entered into the address bar from getting searched. At least that would have been my expectation...

Thanks for the tip!! (I vaguely recall reading about this "keyword" option, but had forgotten about it)

[Moonchild]

The "keyword" preference is a master switch for searching from the address bar. Entering a non-URL entry in the address bar implies a keyword search (this is also why a single term will just try to send you to the domain) and if you don't enter any specific keyword (omit it), it will use the default search engine instead; this was done so default engine searches didn't need the constant entry of the default engine keyword to search (a logical progression from introducing this feature).

I don't like this behavior myself - but since a good portion of our users does use this since Firefox introduced it, it's there and enabled by default. I may change this in the future and remove the ambiguous "default search" from the address bar by default. We have a (more fully functional) search bar in the UI for a reason.

[Tomaso]

I may change this in the future and remove the ambiguous "default search" from the address bar by default.

Please do.
I've always had keyword.enabled set to false myself.
IMO, there's absolutely no point in having this feature enabled by default, considering that we've got a perfectly working search box right next to the address bar, like you pointed out.
This only causes unwilling web searches!
Personally, I'd prefer that all location bar suggestions (History / Bookmarks / Open tabs) were also disabled by default.

[JustOff]

I may change this in the future and remove the ambiguous "default search" from the address bar by default.

Please do.

Please don't!

[Pallid Planetoid]

You can always please some of the people some of the time but you can never please all of the people all of the time.

[BenFenner]

There are a handful of things I do to make sure that the exact text I type into the location bar is what is requested.
By default, there are prefixes, suffixes, and keyword searches applied.

I too believe the location bar is not for searching. Not for searching bookmarks, not for searching DuckDuckGo, not for searching anything.
If I'm searching a URL to find out if it is malicious or not, I damn well sure do not want my browser taking me to that URL. And vise versa.


Don't forget to turn these off (set to false, or blank them out as appropriate) in about:config.

browser.fixup.alternate.prefix
browser.fixup.alternate.suffix

keyword.enabled

browser.urlbar.autoFill
browser.urlbar.autoFill.typed
browser.urlbar.autocomplete.enabled
browser.urlbar.formatting.enabled
browser.urlbar.suggest.bookmark
browser.urlbar.suggest.history
browser.urlbar.suggest.openpage
browser.urlbar.suggest.history.onlyTyped
browser.urlbar.trimURLs


This should be done in addition to the obvious things in the UI settings, like disabling search from the location bar, etc.

[Pallid Planetoid]

The last two listed: "browser.urlbar.suggest.history.onlyTyped" and "browser.urlbar.trimURLs" are already default "false" (so don't need to be changed) all the others would need changing from default if not desired (I prefer the convenience that some of them provide myself).

[GreenGeek]

browser.fixup.alternate.prefix
browser.fixup.alternate.suffix

better (IMO):
browser.fixup.alternate.enabled, false

I may change this in the future and remove the ambiguous "default search" from the address bar by default.

Please do.

If we are voting I'd be "Please do" (but I already tweak so many default settings that are set for the [adjectives omitted] general population that this one is no real issue).

[PhilK]

As much as I dislike searches from the address bar myself, I also know that a lot of people these days really like that feature.

So in my mind, keeping it but making it easy to disable is probably the best strategy.

[Pallid Planetoid]

As much as I dislike searches from the address bar myself, I also know that a lot of people these days really like that feature.

So in my mind, keeping it but making it easy to disable is probably the best strategy.

I agree... dislike searches from address bar as well, but as you say doing so is quite prevalent these days so not making it default would be a concern to a lot of users. It's certainly easy enough to disable.