How To Remove Search Engines (Specifically Yahoo) From Firefox / Flock
After my ill-fated attempt to use latest version of Yahoo Instant Messenger (The Malware), I manually removed all traces of Yahoo Instant Messenger from my system. One thing however persisted - their search engine plugin for Firefox.
Yesterday when I installed Flock I realized Yahoo is selected as their default search engine plugin too.
Obviously Yahoo is paying huge sum to make such a inane search engine as the default in browsers such as Firefox and Flock. Yahoo search is miles behind Google. In fact MSN search is closer than Yahoo.
According to Valley serial entrepreneur Mark Pincus Mozilla Foundation is rumored to be making 30 million annually off of its deal for the google search box in Firefox.
In any case I decided to no longer tolerate Yahoo on my system. No longer will I allow it to come up as a default search engine. It took me about 3 minutes to achieve Yahoo-free-nirvana.
Steps to remove Yahoo or any other Search Engine from Firefox / Flock:
Step 1
Firefox
Go to [Installation Directory]\searchplugins
Flock
Go to [Installation Directory]\Flock\searchplugins
Step 2
Delete Yahoo.gif & Yahoo.src
(Delete the corresponding files for removing any other search engine)
Step 3
Restart your browser
Step 4
Enjoy Yahoo free world!
Filed under Firefox, Google, Headline News, How To, Microsoft, Tech Note, Web, Web Services | 
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October 25th, 2005 at 8:39 pm
Getting rid of the Yahoo! search engine in the search box is easy, but I can’t get rid of it in the location bar (the larger box to the left of the search box — where, typically, the URL is displayed).
Before installing (and quickly uninstalling) Yahoo! IM, I could type in “gmail” in the location bar, hit enter, and go directly to http://www.gmail.com. (Same for similar sites — hotmail, amazon, ebay, etc.) Now, however, instead of going directly to the site I want to go to, I am taken to the Yahoo! search results for whatever term I entered. To go directly to the site, I have to add (at the very least) a “.com” on the end.
It sucks.
Any way to solve this?
October 25th, 2005 at 9:30 pm
I found the answer to my own question: Yahoo! Toolbar Help
December 8th, 2005 at 10:38 pm
Please see this article for solution:
How to Change Your FireFox Location Bar Search Engine
December 27th, 2005 at 2:06 pm
Ever since I recently upgraded Yahoo Messenger, I have a great deal of difficulty browsing to Google content - any address starting with http://www.google.com/... or any page containing a Google syndicated ad. I have uninstalled YM and manually deleted a few lingering Yahoo files and registry keys, and run my spyware programs, all to no avail. Any ideas?
December 27th, 2005 at 3:11 pm
@Michael
Yahoo IM effort is sick to the core.
You can try this:
How to Change Your FireFox Location Bar Search Engine
Check if they modified your %WINDOWS%/system32/drivers/etc/hosts file and included google.com there. If so just delete the entries.
January 17th, 2006 at 11:52 am
man, i’ve been able to remove yahoo search plugin from firefox, but there are others that i’ve previously installed that i can’t find a trace of in the program directory.
not in searchplugins, not in plugins, not in prefs., etc…
any idea how to remove search plugins that i myself have installed from mozdev?
thanks,
ben
April 14th, 2006 at 6:21 pm
Firefox have a special feature that when you highlight and right-click on some words they will automatically do a google search for you. It’s quick and easy, however, yahoo has replaced google instead. And they are useless. I have tried for hours to switch it to Google but still failed. Pleae help me !! @.@
April 14th, 2006 at 6:32 pm
LOL I just found out the answer to my question.
1st Step:
type: “about:config” into your address box
at the filter box type: “search”
Then simply change every “Yahoo” into “Google”
May 30th, 2006 at 1:15 pm
Nice, I hate the yahoo and amazon being added to my firefox. In anwser to the first post. You probably take care of that by reinstalling FireFox, if you uninstall it make sure that you backup your favorites and plugins in you want. Then make sure you completely remove the firefox folder. With the new google toolbar (for FF) you can select which toolbar will show
June 4th, 2006 at 4:37 pm
yeah, my sis installed yahoo instant messenger onto the GOOD computer, not the bad 800mhz 640 ram 16mb graphix card one. and i rely heavily on the firefox location bar search.
so kudos to Angsuman Chakraborty for the fix.
ps: yahoo sucks.
June 16th, 2006 at 1:20 pm
Thanks for your usefull tips!!!
October 1st, 2006 at 4:19 pm
I Found the files yahoo.src and yahoo.gif but when i right click them there is no option to delete it PLEASE HELP YAHOO is really making me mad
October 1st, 2006 at 4:28 pm
Never mind i found the delete option i deleted what you said but it still dident work
November 8th, 2006 at 12:42 am
how do i remove firefox from my computer and all of its components, it slow my computer down
November 18th, 2007 at 7:52 am
Try this website: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Keyword.URL
This gives the answer. I too was frustrated by this Yahoo problem. Very frustrating.
November 18th, 2007 at 8:52 am
Willie,
Firefox has an uninstallation option. Are you on Windows or Linux?
November 18th, 2007 at 9:03 am
Ike,
Please refer to:
How To Change Firefox Location Bar Searching
February 10th, 2008 at 7:17 am
Thanks. This really helps!
March 24th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
Igual no es tan dificil cambiarlo, solo pongan “about:config” en la barra de direcciones y a cada variable que diga yahoo denle click derecho > restaurar, y listo.
April 13th, 2008 at 2:56 am
Never thought i would be feeling so strongly against a web search engine but once my location bar started giving yahoo search results, i am never using yahoo for anything again. Uninstalling yahoo messengers and everything yahoo from my comp.
Thx for the help
May 11th, 2008 at 12:21 am
Thank you so much. I really enjoyed these instructions. Especially the one about the returning the google “i’m feeling lucky” default location bar setting.