Like everyone else, I search the web from the browser address bar and have set Google as the default search engine in both Firefox and IE. I also use OpenDNS for reasons explained here - Why You Need OpenDNS ?
Sounds like a perfect combination but a side effect of using OpenDNS is that you can no longer search Google from Firefox location bar or the address bar of Internet Explorer.
That’s because all search requests from the browser address bar, originally meant for Google, are always redirected to OpenDNS Guide.
This can be a bit frustrating for Google users because Yahoo! (that feeds OpenDNS search) is definitely not the best search engine around.
If you like to disable OpenDNS Guide search without removing the OpenDNS DNS entries from your computer or router, just follow these simple steps:
Use Google Search with OpenDNS in Firefox Location Bar
Type about:config in the address bar and press enter. If you are on Firefox 3, click “I’ll be careful, I promise!”. Now type keyword.url in the Filter field and set the value as:
http://www.google.com/search?q=
If you want Firefox to do a “I am Feeling Lucky” style Google search, use this value for keyword.URL:
http://www.google.com/search?btnI=I%27m+Feeling+Lucky&q=
Also make sure that the value of keyword.enabled is set to TRUE. That’s it - now any query you type in the Firefox Address bar will go to Google, not OpenDNS guide.
Related: Google Search and Firefox location bar
OpenDNS and Internet Explorer Address Bar
Open the registry editor (Start -> Run -> regedit) and navigate to the following key in the registry:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchScopes
If Windows Live Search is your default search engine in Internet Explorer 7, open {0633EE93-D776-472f-A0FF-E1416B8B2E3A} and set the value of URL as
http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q={searchTerms}
In case of Google, open the corresponding key and set the value of URL as
http://www.google.com/search?q={searchTerms}
Technicals: I think OpenDNS redirects Google Searches to OpenDNS Guide if the “source” parameter is present in the search URL. Remove that from the address and OpenDNS would stop redirecting Google searches.
An alternative could be OpenDNS Shortcuts but the above modification are required when you have a dynamic IP address and are not logged into the OpenDNS system.
Related: Firefox Search Bar Hacks, Calculate OpenDNS Speed
Find this article at: http://www.labnol.org/software/browsers/prevent-opendns-google-redirects-firefox-address-bar-ie/2662/
web: http://www.labnol.org/ email: amit@labnol.org
Reader Comments
What about for firefox searches that don’t have any keyword?
(I’m saving myself from having to type “g [space]“…
Written by jc on 03.21.08
Now that I’m on OpenDNS,
when I’m in the main location bar and put in my search words without any prefixes, OpenDNS hijacks it.
Before I used OpenDNS, putting search words in Fx’s location bar would go to Google’s search.
Written by jc on 03.21.08
Although I also am a big fan of OpenDNS, I have had problems too. Namely, for a while all of my google search results inexplicably changed from http://www.google.com/... to link . This was annoying (to say the least) and broke many of my favorite Firefox extensions.
After doing some research online (and finding various reasons suggested) I simply contacted OpenDNS on their support page and within a couple of days they responded, saying that is was fixed, and apologizing for the issue and the delayed response.
…isn’t that part of growing up - learning patience and forgiveness? I forgive you, OpenDNS, and you’re still welcome over for dinner anytime!
Written by USBman on 03.21.08
I also use OpenDNS. I wonder how much OpenDNS depends on the advertiser revenue from the ads to support the service? I guess it doesn’t both me as much since I typically don’t search from the address bar.
Written by Anne H on 03.21.08
yeah it works i was using opendns but its search results ware annoying now i am happy
Written by sandeep on 03.21.08
How convenient Google searches are redirected to OpenDNS Guide searches instead. This is by design.
OpenDNS also breaks Firefox extensions
that enable search from the context menu.
I am not about to sacrifice these conveniences.
These a just a few reasons
why I do not need OpenDNS.
Written by RRS on 03.21.08
That may be helpful (I’d prefer using Firefox’s keyword system to initiate location-bar searches), but by eliminating the redirect you’re also eliminating OpenDNS’s revenue stream, which of course is what pays for their free-to-us (and excellent) service.
Written by Q Denham on 03.21.08
Aha… I never knew this… I guess that’s because I never search from the address bar…
I am used to “Ctrl+E”-ing and typing what I need to search for and pressing Enter. (Ctrl+E takes you to the Browser Search Box)
Written by Vaibhav on 03.23.08
“Open”DNS seems to be aggressively persuing whatever revenue stream they are finding by hijacking my browser bar and redirecting to their “Open”guide. That’s with Typo Correction turned OFF. I switched to OpenDNS to get away from Verizon hijacking (instigated in Los Angeles I think mid 2007). Can anyone recommend another DNS service that will leave my error traffic alone?
Written by john on 03.24.08
This doesn’t work for me. Using OpenDNS; have removed the ’source’ parameter and tried a few different URLs to Google search. They all still redirect to the guide. Goddamnit. Any other ideas?
Written by bob on 03.25.08
It doesn’t work for me either, has OpenDNS changed something, or am I missing something ?
Written by Ronan on 04.04.08
It’s not working for me either; I think OpenDNS did change something.
Are they seriously hijacking Google searches like this? That’s unacceptable.
Written by Randall Munroe on 04.13.08
To the above posters, it does work!
Worked beautifully on Firefox 3 Beta 5 on Ubuntu 8.04 Beta (I like betas okay!)
Now I don’t need to prepend g to do my searches in the address bar.
Written by Fran on 04.14.08
Actually, my apologies to the above. This does work, but you must paste this as the string for the keyword
link
I copied it from my own keyword search rather than the blog itself (you for example could right click on the google search box and choose add key word (mine was the letter g).
I had been using it because as was said, the opendns search is worse, if I ended up there it was accidental.
Written by Fran on 04.14.08
Okay I figured it out at last. The post is correct. But, if you type one search term, you end up at the opendns guide. if you have a sace in there, goes straight to google
for example type
bleh
or
blah blah
The latter will go to google… Sigh…
Written by Fran on 04.14.08
This one works for me (I just removed the UTF-8 part from the query):
link
I also think that hijacking queries is quite discusting. Is there any OpenDNS alternative out there ???
Written by menek on 04.16.08
I just used the instructions above, abd it worked perfectly!
I don’t have anything against OpenDNS , except for one small detail. My address bar search was hijacked and changed to OpenDNS. I don’t take too kindly to that. I’ve read that the owner says that Google is not the best search engine out there, but at least I picked them by choice! No OpenDNS!!!!!
Written by Adam on 04.26.08
Thank you. Worked perfect. This has bugged me for awhile. I would check the keyword.URL value and everything seemed correct. I would login to opendns and do things that I thought would disable the hijcking with no luck. Changing the value from the default I’m Felling Lucky string to link worked perfect.
For those who say it’s not working, remember you have to restart the browser for about:config changes to work. Maybe that’s the issue? Might want to add that to the instructions.
Written by Jeremy on 05.19.08
If you don’t want any Google searches to go to OpenDNS, you can also add the following line to your C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts file (change system directory if necessary):
64.233.167.99 link
This will bypass OpenDNS for any requests to link , and fixes the Firefox problem.
Written by Oz on 06.01.08
Thanks for the post, I just want to confirm it is still correct (4 July 2008).
At least on Firefox 2.0.0.14 this are my results:
1: I put OpenDNS IP addresses as my primary and secondary
2: I confirm words typed in address bar still redirect to guide.opendns.com
3: Prepending “g ” in the address bar does NOT bypass openDNS
4: removing just “&sourceid=navclient” works
5: do not need to restart browser for config change to take effect
6: Typing one or two words in the address bar makes no difference (cf post #15)
7: Firefox’s search bar still works Ok: on the right, reachable with ctrl-E
It’s nice when these technical notes work, if only my Tiscali provider was as helpful!
Written by Robert on 07.04.08
Thank you, thank you, thank you. I reestablished my Google lucky search.
Written by Victor on 07.11.08
How can we do this in the Opera browser?
Written by JC on 07.12.08
Thank you, thank you! It was an extra layer that never gave me what I needed.
Written by JG on 08.12.08
I’m guessing firefox uses DNS records to see if a website exists, otherwise it’ll do a feeling lucky google search. problem is, openDNS makes every query look like a valid URL. I wish firefox could check the validity of a URL via some 3rd party DNS record, that way it would circumvent OpenDNS’s ad system.
Written by mikey on 08.21.08
Fantastic article and works with the latest 3.0.1 version - thanks.
Written by KW on 08.30.08
“6: Typing one or two words in the address bar makes no difference (cf post #15)”
I’m having this problem too. Typing two or more words uses google search fine, but one word it still goes to OpenDNS search page.
Written by Jeremy on 09.02.08
Wow, very nice article. Thank you!
I really hate the Yahoo search redirected by OpenDNS. Yahoo search can’t search for sh!t.
Written by Kevin on 09.22.08
you guys i don’t know if this makes a difference, but for some of the people who it’s not working for, maybe your router is set for OpenDNS, instead of just your computer? hmmm…..
Written by adam on 10.22.08
For those of you using a router running a router with dnsmasq enabled place this line in the Additional dnsmasq options box.
server=/www.google.com/205.152.132.23
Replace the ip address with the address of a non opendns server. This will effectively turn off opendns for only google.
Written by John on 12.17.08
I found another solution; instead using http://www.google.com/... in the keyword.URL key, I changed it to link , the local Google domain for my country. Now OpenDNS does not hijack the “I’m feeling lucky” feature.
Written by pedro on 01.03.09
Thats for Google. How about Scroogle and others?
Written by Ask on 03.08.09
How odd I find your article when it is exactly one year old… my FF (3.0.7) only “started” addressing OpenDNS with keywords I type in the address bar - even though I have NOT specified any DNS server and the FF settings already ARE set as you suggest in your article. What can I do if I still end up at OpenDNS instead of Google? Until just recently it all worked fine - other than accepting updates, I didn’t change a thing!
Written by Irving on 03.21.09
Big thanks, I use openDNS and it is a Great service for protecting the kids and also correcting my typos :D
The Whole Yahoo thing was seriously bugging me but now its fixed and back to Google :D
YAY!
Written by GazAssassin on 04.11.09
I started using OpenDNS yesterday and I didnt even ask for it, register for it, even know about it. So how all of a sudden is it deciding for me what sites are appropriate for even “adult viewing” when I didn’t even ask for this service? I wish I never even heard of OpenDNS! Go away! Do I have to create an account with them to decie what they let me view? Thats just wrong!! I didnt ask for this..
Written by Jason on 05.05.09