As you type into the search bar, Firefox suggests relevant search terms and solution buttons related to the task or answer you may be looking for. When search suggestions are enabled, the text you type in the search bar is sent to your default search engine. This search engine analyzes the words and displays a list of popular results based on the search term.

How search suggestions work

If you see a search suggestion that matches what you are looking for, click on it to see results for that search term. This can save time and help you find what you’re looking for with less typing.

Enabling search suggestions will send the keywords you type in a search field to the default search engine - unless you appear to be typing a URL or hostname.

Searches can be entered into:

• the address bar
• the Search bar, if enabled in the toolbar
• the New Tab page

The default search engine may collect that information according to the terms of their privacy policy, and users concerned about this information being collected may not wish to enable search suggestions.

Search suggestions are disabled by default in Private Browsing mode. You must explicitly turn them on in a Private Browsing window to enable them in that mode. In Firefox version 71 and above, you can enable search suggestions for all Private Browsing windows from your Firefox Settings search settings (see below).

Enabling or disabling search suggestions

You can enable or disable Search suggestions at any time. In the Menu bar at the top of the screen, click Firefox and then select Preferences or Settings, depending on your macOS version.Click the menu button and select Settings. Select the Search panel and then check or uncheck the Provide search suggestions box in your Firefox search settings.