Error using Google serach in Firefox

[westernone]

I have an intermittent problem with my browser (Firefox 1.0.6), when I enter a searh string in the search box (Google), I get a message Opening search, you have chosen to open...search...whcih is a: application/octet-stream from http:www.google.ie...what should Firefox do with this file?

I understand this may have something to do with MIME types, but can't find out how to resolve the issue.
Other search engines selected do not exhibit the same behaviour i.e. they work as expected.
Any ideas as to how I can correct this.
(Have reinstalled Firefox already)

 

[car]

Try dropping and recreating a new firefox profile The problems may be/probably are linked to the profile so reinstalling just takes over the old one and hence doesnt fix. By creating a new one you dont need to reinstall.

 

[Omega]

I've also had problems using Firefox. It's faster on some sites but it seems to take ages to open the Google homepage for me and search results take about 30 seconds to come back, as opposed to a few seconds with IE. Any thoughts?

 

[car]

Try a reinstall and/or profile recreation as above.

This is a common post on the web to speed up firefox. Ive got a pretty fast connection at home and at work anyway so didnt notice too much difference but it may be of help.

Here's something for broadband people that will really speed Firefox up:
1.Type "about:config" into the address bar and hit return.
Scroll down and look for the following entries: network.http.pipelining network.http.proxy.pipelining network.http.pipelining.maxrequests
Normally the browser will make one request to a web page at a time. When you enable pipelining it will make several at once, which really speeds up page loading.
2. Alter the entries as follows:
Set "network.http.pipelining" to "true"
Set "network.http.proxy.pipelining" to "true"
Set "network.http.pipelining.maxrequests" to some number like 30. This means it will make 30 requests at once.
3. Lastly right-click anywhere and select New-> Integer. Name it "nglayout.initialpaint.delay" and set its value to "0". This value is the amount of time the browser waits before it acts on information it receives. If you're using a broadband connection you'll load pages MUCH faster now!

* edited to improve layout above

 

[demoivre]

Try a reinstall and/or profile recreation as above.

This is a common post on the web to speed up firefox. Ive got a pretty fast connection at home and at work anyway so didnt notice oo much difference but it may be of help.[/QUOTE

Excellent Car - even with a 1mb connection this has made a substantial difference