As you likely know by now, Google has updated their favicon.ico from the boxed G (
)to a lower case (with no box) g (
). However, Firefox continues to use the old icon in the search bar.
Old Google Firefox Search Bar
New Google Firefox Search Bar
To switch to the new icon in your Firefox Search Bar, keep reading.
To update Firefox and force the search box to display the new icon, download and install the Add to Search Bar Addon (previously reviewed here) - which works in both Firefox 2.x and 3. As with all Firefox addons, you’ll need to restart Firefox after it’s installed.
Now visit http://www.google.com. Right-click (ctrl-click for single-button Mac folks) in the Google Search box and select Add to Search Bar…
A small pop-up window will appear asking you to name (and select an icon) the new search. Leave the defaults and click OK
Now you’ll notice the new Google icon in your Search Bar.
To remove the old Google entry (and make the new one the default) select the arrow next to the new Google icon and choose Manage Search Engines… from the list.
First, select your new Google entry and click the Move Up button until it’s at the top.
Once it’s at the top, highlight the “old” Google entry and click the Remove button. When you’re done, click OK
That’s it - you’re done. Enjoy your the new Google icon in your Firefox Search box.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow, that was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I hadn’t heard of that plugin before either, thanks!!
After installing the extension, finding out it is NOT compatible with 3.0RC1, enabling Nightly Tester Tools, forcing compatibility…. The option to Add to Search Bar is not present.
Alvin -
Admittedly I did the install on FF 3B5, but assumed (I know) that since the addon page said “Firefox: 2.0 – 3.0.*” that included RC1. Sorry about that.
There is the possibility that there’s a conflict with another extension of course…
I finally edited the XML file in the searchplugins and changed the icon there. But you have to convert the file to hex code and that was a process I’m still not quite sure how I did (it involved a commandline on Linux).. Would be nice if firefox accepted a URL for the search icon in the xml file.
Wow! Thank you very much. It was so easy. And as said above, this blog only let me know about that add-on for the search engines.
Regards,
Imho the REAL interesting thing is how to NOT get the sh*** icon in my firefox and get the old one back.
The vast majority of users disagrees on the new icon for what i read on the blogs.
Ill fiddle around .
Cheers
Thanks a lot, very informative article. I was searching for how to update my firefox. This will really help me
Te installation worked very well.
There’s just one thing: with the new search bar I don’t get the automatic suggestions anymore.
Is there a way to get those too?
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