How to Use Mozilla Firefox As My Search Engine

Search with Firefox.

Internet browsers feature embedded search engines and other search features that allow you to find a website for which you may not know the exact URL. Most browsers allow you to customize which search engine you want to use, as well as many other search options.

Instructions

1. Open Mozilla Firefox.

2. Customize your search settings. In the top right of the browser there will be a small dialog box with a search engine logo next to it. The logo indicates which browser is set as your default browser (for example, Google's stylized "G" represents that you have Google set as your default browser). Clicking on that logo will allow you to choose a different default browser (Yahoo!, Amazon, Wikipedia, etc.).

3. Type the search item into the small dialog box on the top right of the window.

4. Delete the text showing in the address bar (the longer dialog box starting with "http://") and type a search item. The search will be run using the search engine you specified as the default.

5. Type the URL of a search engine into the address bar (for instance, google.com) and type the search items into Google's dialog box.

Tips & Warnings

• Check for spelling errors in your search items. A simple typo can be the difference between finding or not finding the site you are looking for.

• If you are having trouble finding your search item, try enclosing the search items in quotation marks. Because of the way search engines are designed, if you type "Vacation spots in Maryland" without quotation marks, the search engine will search for each word separately. If you enclose the entire phrase in quotation marks, it will search for all of those words in that order. This can be a useful means of narrowing your search results down to the pages you are looking for.