Ubuntu's multisearch surprise

"The bug report filed on July 21 had to do with broken functionality. It seems that, when using the version of Firefox distributed with the third Karmic alpha release, typing a search string into the "awesome bar" no longer takes the user directly to the first search result from Google. Instead, users end up at a Google "search partner" page listing the results and, of course, advertisements. Other quick searches, including stock quotes and currency conversions, also break. A related change is that opening a new tab now brings up an Ubuntu search page instead of a blank page - a change that some users find jarring.

"It turns out that Ubuntu has placed a new Firefox extension, called "multisearch," into the Karmic alpha release. In essence, multisearch rewires the various search mechanisms built into the browser, causing them all to pass through Ubuntu's partner page. It can be disabled by going into the "Tools->Add-ons" menu, but, by default, it is installed and active on all systems."

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