Firefox/Chrome disable search opening in a new tab

Question

When you select some text with Firefox and Chrome for that matter you can right click the highlight text and search

some query
(highlight the text above and right click)
Search Google for "some query"

How can I stop it from opening in the new tab. I cannot find it in about:config or chrome://plugins

I don't want it opened in the SAME tab. I want it opened in a NEW tab but I DON'T want Firefox/Chrome to automatically switch to the new tab once opened..

Answer 1

If you're referring to the internal "Search for.." of Firefox, probably there's no such option.

Well, in fact I'm surprised you want that behavior, but of course it's a matter of personal taste and work flow. But think of 'heavy' pages you're on -- when you search something and it opens in the same tab, and then you click 'Back', it will be a lot of work for the browser to re-render the page. The work flow is also different for me, because I often search not in Google, but look up words in dictionaries using Context Search add-on.

There's kind of similar option browser.search.context.loadInBackground recently added, saying whether to focus the new tab or not. Perhaps you should open an issue in Bugzilla.

Alternative workaround:

Instead of right clicking and choosing 'Search in Google', you can

• make sure Google is selected as default search engine in the search field you have in top-right of the browser,
• set browser.search.openintab to false (this affects only search from the search field),
• select the text,
• drag it from the page onto the search field of the Firefox.

That way you'll have it opened in the same tab.

Answer 2

This "search for selected text" probably comes from the installed GoogleBar or GoogleBar lite addon (at least it does with my FF). Open the first tab of its options, and uncheck "open search results in a new tab" should solve it.