# Annoying Firefox Problem...
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-firefox-problem/443437
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [March 31, 2008, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-firefox-problem/443437 "2008-03-31T19:51:58Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Merkwurdigliebe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merkwurdigliebe)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2008, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-firefox-problem/443437/1 "2008-03-31T19:51:58Z")
Now this really annoys the hell out of me.
A lot of times when I want to get a pic of something I’ll type it in and do a google image search. Pretty normal, right. Here’s an example of a page I might click on.
[Example](http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://lh3.google.com/_p_eXz2oNa14/RtWmtvjOGjI/AAAAAAAAAXo/sdKcYcX_Kpk/s800/IMG_3125.JPG&imgrefurl=http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/5fMr17cDG2C_UP6dnrolgw&h=600&w=800&sz=120&hl=en&start=1&um=1&tbnid=7k9o34eg-UT5ZM:&tbnh=107&tbnw=143&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dblack%2Blion%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN)
So you get there and you get the frame with the bit from google in the top, and the original page on the bottom. Used to, rather than looking for the pic in the frame below, I’d simply click the image at the top part and then it would load the image individually.
Now when I click it (These are JPG images) it opens up some save file dialog…And when I click on the “open” radio button instead, it says something like ((“null”)).
But this doesn’t always happen.
BTW I’m using Firefox 3.0b4 on Mac OSX Leopard.
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### Author:  [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2008, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-firefox-problem/443437/2 "2008-03-31T21:40:12Z")
That happens to me on that page, too. Windows XP, FF 2.0.0.13 here.
The null is probably because you don’t have an action defined under tools/options/content/file types. But you shouldn’t need an action for a jpg, obviously. Maybe it’s a non-standard jpg that Firefox doesn’t recognize automatically? I did quickly check it with a hex editor and I didn’t see anything obvious.
IE does the same thing and says of it “type: CorelPhotoAlbumPhoto, 119k”. Hmm.
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### Author:  [@xiix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xiix)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2008, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-firefox-problem/443437/3 "2008-03-31T21:54:07Z")
started happening to me too perhaps a week ago. Occurs sporadically.
very annoying indeed.
Mac w/ firefox 3.0b4
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### Author:  [@xiix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xiix)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2008, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-firefox-problem/443437/4 "2008-03-31T21:56:24Z")
When hitting ‘open’ for the OP’s link, I did indeed see the error. Its like firefox forgot how to open JPGs. I went to Preferences --\> Applications --\> JPEGs and selected ‘Preview’ (the application), and that has resolved the problem (except I would prefer to open with firefox).
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### Author:  [@spinky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spinky)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2008, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-firefox-problem/443437/5 "2008-03-31T22:00:45Z")
This is actually because that’s what google is telling the browser to do, for whatever reason: the google page for that image is returning a “Content-Disposition: attachment” header, which instructs the browser that this is a download link, not a view link. So this is actually an annoying Google problem.
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### Author:  [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2008, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-firefox-problem/443437/6 "2008-03-31T22:06:03Z")
Happens to me, too, except the default ‘Open With’ is Adobe PS Elements 6.0.
When I click the tab to open it in that program, however, it doesn’t open in Photoshop, it opens in Windows Picture and Fax Viewer.
Just started happening a week or two ago, same as **xiix**.
Win XP SP2, Firefox 2.011
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### Author:  [@Mike.V](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mike.V)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2008, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-firefox-problem/443437/7 "2008-03-31T22:16:45Z")
[QUOTE=ntucker]
This is actually because that’s what google is telling the browser to do, for whatever reason: the google page for that image is returning a “Content-Disposition: attachment” header, which instructs the browser that this is a download link, not a view link. So this is actually an annoying Google problem.
[/QUOTE]
**ntucker** is right. To expand a bit on what he’s saying, when your browser asks for the picture, the server–lh3.google.com–responds with not only the actual content of the image, but a bunch of header information that describes what it’s sending.
This HTTP header information tells your browser a number of things about what it is receiving so that it will know how to display it. This includes things like its content type (is it a web site? a picture? a song?), its encoding and its date modified.
Here Google tells your browser that the file is an attachment, and therefore should be downloaded and not viewed within the browser. This is helpful for photo sharing sites like Picassa because the site can include a download link that prompts the user to save the file, rather than just showing it to them.
You can view the full response headers from Google for that particular image here:
[http://web-sniffer.net/?url=http%3A%2F%2Flh3.google.com%2F\_p\_eXz2oNa14%2FRtWmtvjOGjI%2FAAAAAAAAAXo%2FsdKcYcX\_Kpk%2Fs800%2FIMG\_3125.JPG&submit=Submit&http=1.1&gzip=yes&type=GET&uak=0](http://web-sniffer.net/?url=http%3A%2F%2Flh3.google.com%2F_p_eXz2oNa14%2FRtWmtvjOGjI%2FAAAAAAAAAXo%2FsdKcYcX_Kpk%2Fs800%2FIMG_3125.JPG&submit=Submit&http=1.1&gzip=yes&type=GET&uak=0)
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### Author:  [@Capt\_B.Phart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt_B.Phart)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2008, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-firefox-problem/443437/8 "2008-03-31T22:16:59Z")
[QUOTE=ntucker]
This is actually because that’s what google is telling the browser to do, for whatever reason: the google page for that image is returning a “Content-Disposition: attachment” header, which instructs the browser that this is a download link, not a view link. So this is actually an annoying Google problem.
[/QUOTE]
Just tried the link with Opera rather than FF and the same happens, so I guess you’ve nailed it