Now when I do an impromptu search, I have to manually click on <Google Search>
for it to do its thing. Up until about 4 days ago I could hit the enter key (either one)
which is wee bit quicker and more convenient. Perhaps it’s an issue on my end?
Must be your end; I can hit enter to submit a query without any problem. Typically web pages with a text field and one or more buttons set the focus (what will be activated when “enter” is pressed) to the default button, which is usually the button people are most likely to hit (in the case of more than one). It sounds like for whatever reason your browser is either ignoring the focus direction or isn’t getting the function that tells it where to set focus.
Does it do the same thing in a different browser? If not, then it’s a problem with your browser. Did you install any new plug-ins or helper programs recently? Some spyware and malware will hijack your web pages in your browser to behave differently for their own purposes, usually to try to direct you to their sites to buy from them.