Search Bar

I have my search bar set for Google. How does one go about clearing it of past searches? Thanks.

 

James,

From the MozillaZine Knowledge Base:

You can clear the previous searches from the Search Bar. Just right-click it and select "Clear Search History ". You can delete individual elements by selecting them and pressing "Shift+Del.
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This works for both Seamonkey and Mozilla Firefox.

Ramona

 

James & Ramona ...

I use the search bar (set for Google) in Firefox all the time, and I don't show a list of past searches, even though I have the box checked in Tools > Options > Privacy > Saved Form Information. The only history I show is the browser history, accessible in the sidebar. It also has a search window, which does NOT have a "Clear Search History" selection in its context menu.

At my former job I used to say "the longer I work here the fewer people I seem to know ". Something similar seems to be the case with Firefox ... the more I learn about it, the less I seem to know.

 

I have the Google bar only in IE6, and that one a Google name on the part left. Clicking on the down arrow head opens a drop down choice, which include Options, and right below Clear Search history. I don't have a Google searchbar in any of my gecko programs. I use IE very rarely, and the Google bar is there solely to prevent popups.

 

Maybe we're all talking about different Search Bars. I assumed that James was talking about removing entries from the Google Search bar from http://www.google.com/.

I thinkWestside is talking about the "Google Toolbar ":
http://toolbar.google.com/googlebar.html

Jim, are you referring to the same search bar as James, or are you referring to the Search Bar that you can drag to the Toolbar from the "Customize" option? I don't use it, but if this is your reference, I'm not at all sure how to remove links other than to right click and select either "Delete ", or "Clear Search History ". I see no options for deleting individual links...



Ramona

 

O.K., more information from the Mozilla Forums:

To remove entries in the Google Search Bar
- (the Search Bar that is added to the Toolbar from the "Customize" option):

Left Click Toolbar field once
Use the Keyboard down arrow key
Searches will be listed in the drop down menu
Delete individual links by highlighting with a mouseover
- (do not click on the link)
Press Shift+DEL

Thanks to Unarmed, and keithy.

Ramona

 

Ramona ...

I thought James was referring to, and I'm talking about, Firefox's native search window, which normally appears to the right of the address window, but can be dragged up to the menu bar, where I have mine.

As I said in my earlier post, I show NO previous entries in this window, even though, when you right-click on/in the window, you can select "Clear Search History ". I have no idea where, if at all, these entries are stored. The logical place would seem to be the search.rdf file in the profile folder, but it never changes its size on my system.

I just did a search in the Firefox forums, and discovered that the list of searches is displayed by clicking in the search window then pressing the down arrow key, which seems completely illogical to me. Who woulda thunk it?

 

Jim,

We were obviously posting at the same time, and you didn't see my post. The Mozilla Forums are a rich resource for Firefox, Thunderbird, and Seamonkey. A search will turn up amazing information...

Ramona

 

Hi Ramona,

You're right, of course, but there appears to be something badly wrong with the history in my search window. I can clear the history, and all entries disappear, but the next time I open FF, there they are again ... an alphabetical listing dating back weeks.

 

Jim,

Are you doing the mouseover to delete? I can't seem to get your results here.
If I delete the history in the drop down menu by a mouseover, and then a Shift+DEL, exit FF, then restart, there is no history?

Ramona

 

Jim,

Rename the history.dat file, and see if you get the same results. If not, i.e., if the results are positive, then you may need to delete the file, as it may be corrupt.

Ramona

 

Ramona ...

I don't know what you mean by a "mouseover ". If I click in the search window and press the "down" arrow on the keyboard, I get a list of searches that I know date back several weeks. If I right-click and select "Clear Search History ", everything disappears.

However, if I close Firefox and reopen it, everything in the search window list reappears.

I'm not really worried about it, but it would be nice to know why it's happening.

FYI, I'm currently using today's aviary release (FF 1.0.3, 04-11-05), which may be responsible for something else that's happening, as well ... when I close FF, the process remains active, and I have to manually kill it in Task Manager before I can open another FF window, either from a shortcut or from an email link.

 

Ramona ...

We're probably going to cross-post again.

The history.dat file contains the browser history, not the search history, which I haven't located yet.

 

Jim,

Mouseover = moving the cursor over the the sites listed in the drop down menu. The listings will be highlighted in blue. Once highlighted in blue, don't click on the link, but press Shift+DEL, and that will delete the listing.

Ramona

 

Got it. What you call a "mouseover" I just call "highlighting ". I do it all the time in context menus and the Start menu, but I don't think I've ever heard it referred to as a "mouseover" (and, to split hairs, it's really a "pointer-over" ).

For whatever reason, all of my search window listings have disappeared, and I've closed, and reopened, FF several times. Oh well, on that note, I'm going to bed.

 

Ramona, you got it right. But, now I have no idea what is going on. We are getting very dangerously in the Mouseover category, which I use all the time to get complete URLs or complete description of shortened names in Tabs, such as Win=windowsBBS reply topic. Four of my Tabs are shortened to Net, being the Netscape.com, Netscape Solutions and two other newsgroups, or
complete e-mail subjects. That's the only mouseover I know, and it does something very useful, momementarily. And, this goes on in all programs. I see it in Napster where song names are