Firefox open new tab behaviour

Solution 1:

If you go to

about:config

you can change the setting below (default is false, set to true.)

browser.search.openintab

Then you can just press CTRL + K to focus on the search box, and then when you hit enter, the search results will open in a new tab.

Solution 2:

You might be interested in the New Tab Searchbar addon, which solves exactly this problem. New tabs have focus redirected to the search bar.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/new-tab-searchbar/

Solution 3:

While not default, the Search Box is one TAB away from the Awesome Bar in Firefox.
I often Ctrl+L, TAB to get to the search bar.

Or Ctrl+T, TAB to get to the search box when opening a new tab.

Solution 4:

While I'm not sure of the exact answer to your question, you can change the default search engine that the address bar uses. This tutorial explains how:

• At Firefox address bar, enter about:config and press ENTER.
• At Filter: field, type keyword.url
• You should see a Preference name of keyword.URL in the list. Double click it, a Enter String Value input box will appear.
• Replace the string with: http://www.google.com.my/search?q=
• Click OK button and done!