Forcing Searches in Firefox to Open in New Tab

When using Firefox it’s often useful to use the Google search box to find something that you need.  One annoying that that often happens though is that the search is done in the same tab as you have open.  This can be annoying of course because you are often working in that tab and actually need that to stay on the page it’s on.

You’ll be of course happy to know that there is an easy way to fix this though, all it takes is a visit to the config section of Firefox.  These are advanced settings though so when they are changed be ready for the warning for you to be sure what you are doing.

Setting the Search to Open in New Tab

The first thing to do is go to your URL box and type in “about:config” and press enter.  This is where you will get the warning message to say that you should only proceed into this area if you know what you are doing.  Proceed into the config area without much worry; nothing will go wrong as long as you follow these instructions. 

Once you are in the config you will see many options, but above it a search box.  In here type in “browser.search.openintab” this will find the option you need to set.  All you need to do is change this setting to true then this change will automatically be changed and you will find that you can now do your searches without losing the page you are on in that tab.

Once this change has been done be sure to close the config area so that no other changes are made.  If you want to have a look around though there is no harm, just be sure that if you make any changes remember what they are in case you need to change them back.  Always beware of doing anything you are unsure of in there as these are the advanced options for your browser so it is possible to break it if you are not careful.

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