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How to remove the search box in Firefox

Removing the search box in Firefox not only makes your toolbar look cleaner, but you can start your searches faster by using the CTRL-L shortcut to instantly move your cursor to the awesome bar. We'll show you how to remove the Firefox search box.

Ed Rhee
Ed Rhee, a freelance writer based in the San Francisco Bay Area, is an IT veteran turned stay-at-home-dad of two girls. He focuses on Android devices and applications while maintaining a review blog at techdadreview.com.
Ed Rhee
The search box in Firefox is redundant because you can perform searches right from the location bar, otherwise known as the awesome bar. Removing the search box not only makes your toolbar look cleaner, but you can start your searches faster by using the CTRL-L shortcut to instantly move your cursor to the awesome bar. Here's how to remove the search box from your Firefox toolbar:

Step 1: Right-click on the toolbar to bring up the toolbar menu and select Customize.

Customize Firefox toolbar
Screenshot by Ed Rhee

Step 2: Drag the search box from the toolbar over to the "Customize Toolbar" box.

Drag the search box
Screenshot by Ed Rhee

Step 3: Once you see the search box appear in the "Customize Toolbox" box, click the Done button.

Search box dragged over
Screenshot by Ed Rhee
That's it. Now the search box in your Firefox toolbar is gone and you can perform your Web searches from the awesome bar instantly by using CTRL-L. If you prefer Bing or Yahoo search engines over Google, you can change the default awesome bar search engine.