Firefox version 30: Separating URL bar and Search Bar functions?

Factual Questions
1

In previous versions of Firefox, there was the URL or Address bar, which would do a Google search if you simply typed in a search term. To the right of it was the smaller search engine bar. This had a drop-down menu from which one could select a different search engine or site (such as Wikipedia or YouTube). This effectively gave the user 2 separate and powerful search tools.

Since I’ve been forced to upgrade to Firefox 30, the two inputs now share whatever search engine the drop-down bar uses. This to me seems redundant.

Is it possible to fiddle with certain under-the-hood settings and get the old functionality back? I keep forgetting to set the drop-down back to Google and I’ve sent Google type queries to Wikipedia.

2

Yes. there’s a setting in about:config that disable searching form the address bar (or awesomebar as it’s called in mozilla’s documentation).

The setting is keyword.enabled. If it’s true the address bar is treated as a second search box for your default search engine.

Here’s the link to a fuller explanation: Search the web from the address bar | Firefox Help