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Note that the URL bar does search autocomplete now (new in 55 maybe?).

Hmm. It doesn't seem to in 54, but you're right that it does in a 55 beta. If that's the case, then there's really no point to two separate bars. Looks like https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1344928 is where the behavior change happened.

Based on the diffs there, looks like the 55 feature can at least be turned off by setting the "browser.urlbar.suggest.searches" preference to false... (That preference doesn't affect the search bar.) Also looks like there's preferences UI for this (the "Show search suggestions in location bar results" checkbox).

There's also a dropdown showing up the first time you use the url bar. Depending on the value set for browser.urlbar.suggest.searches on that first run, the dropdown will either tell you about suggestions with a button leading to the prefs where you can disable them, or ask you whether you want to enable or disable them.

I think there were talks about not presenting the search box for new profiles, too, but it looks like that hasn't happened yet.

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