tldr; Firefox changed the order in which suggestions appear when you start typing in the address bar. It used to show previously visited websites first. Now it prioritizes its own suggestions.
To get back to the old behaviour, navigate to about:config, search for the key browser.urlbar.showSearchSuggestionsFirst and change the value to false.
Not normal for me but I recently opted in to Firefox’s telemetry so they could see all the trouble I’m going through to turn off their new features in their reporting.
Will it change their mind? Probably not. But at least it’ll be there in the numbers
You don’t need to head to about:config for this, it’s right there in the settings GUI.
Took maybe 10 mins to get Waterfox set up just now and it imported my bookmarks and passwords from Firefox! In case anyone else has been considering it the last few months like me.
Waterfox had a rocky start, with privacy settings being reset to defaults on each load. Once that was unbroken, I made it my permanent browser on PC and mobile. Zero regrets.
Mozilla is a shadow of its former self. I understand they desperately want that Google pay cheque, but “number must go up” mentality and MBA-infected CxOs can both get in the bin.
What’s wrong with librewolf?
No mobile version
IronFox is LibreWolf for android. IronFox is the best maintained version of a android Firefox fork. You can find it on the Accrescent store. IronFox combines best parts of Fennec and Mull making them actually reliable. While those two haven’t reliably worked for me, IronFox has.
I value features over privacy, so I prefer waterfox to Ironfox.
Fennec is the closest thing to a mobile version of Librewolf. It doesn’t have all the privacy and security tweaks as Librewolf but it’s far better than mobile Firefox.
There’s also Firefox Focus but it’s more difficult to use as a main browser since it defaults to wiping all traces of history and settings after each session.
Now it prioritizes its own suggestions.
The article talks about search suggestions. Those are from the search provider, not Firefox.
I’ve always had them disabled. It’s not like I need suggestions of what to search for or what I may want to search for.
