Closed Bug 908446 Opened 11 years ago Closed 2 years ago

Google search pages blank with use of back button

Categories

(Core :: Layout, defect)

23 Branch
x86_64
Windows 7
defect
Not set
major

Tracking

()

RESOLVED WORKSFORME

People

(Reporter: void2258, Unassigned)

References

Details

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:23.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/23.0 (Beta/Release)
Build ID: 20130814063812

Steps to reproduce:

Perform google search with or without enter.
Click through a link to view page.
Return to search with back.


Actual results:

Page is completely white below google bar, despite having the same address it did when I left the page.


Expected results:

Page should reload exactly as it was before I clicked though link (with updated color on clicked link).
Same problem for me. This is in my address bar http://www.google.com/#fp=893dcfaea44611aa&q=yandex but the entire page is white below the google search box. It does however still display the black google navigation bar at the top.

Error console gives me;

Timestamp: 08/23/2013 03:40:01 PM
Warning: Unknown property '-moz-box-shadow'.  Declaration dropped.
Source File: http://www.google.com/#fp=46eb45f876181a17&q=yandex
Line: 10, Column: 71863

as well as 'box-sizing'
Works for me in Firefox 23.  Please try to reproduce in safe mode with all add-ons disabled: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/troubleshoot-firefox-issues-using-safe-mode
Does not occur in Safe Mode. Does occur when ANY add-on is engaged. Tried multiple combinations of engaged and disengaged add-ons, and either every single add-on I use just happens to cause the issue or having any add-on at all engaged causes it.

Appears that something about the add-on framework is braking google.
Confirmed, it does not seem to occur in safe mode and I also could not verify which add-on is the problem or which combination (if any) causes it. However I noticed in the last few days another (new?) issue, everytime I go back to the google results and get the blank page, I refresh using the toolbar button and my results become https. I was not in private browsing or using https. And in case it's relevant I refuse all cookies from google on this profile. I never noticed if it was previously doing that.
Confirmed across multiple systems running both 23 and 24beta branches. Behavior severely hinders use of Google.

Issue is unique to Google only. Bing does not experience this issue. Yahoo cannot be diagnosed as it opens click-throughs in new tabs.
Could you please create a new profile, install a single one of your add-ons that's causing the problem, and report back if the problem happens there?  If so, please report the name of the add-on.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles
Does not appear to be a specific add-on. With new profile, problem occurs as soon as ANY addon is enabled, including test pilot.
So I did a slightly different test, on the same profile I am having this issue with I disabled all installed addons, but was not in safe mode, and the problem still happens. Is it possible that something in about:config, that the user changed, is causing an issue? I have 4 profiles all on the same computer, 3 of them behave badly except the one that I remain signed in on with google services (gmail, youtube, G+), I have no troubles there at all. Not sure if any of this info helps or not.
(In reply to void2258 from comment #7)
> Does not appear to be a specific add-on. With new profile, problem occurs as
> soon as ANY addon is enabled, including test pilot.

Do you know whether all your add-ons use the Add-on SDK?

(In reply to sev9x from comment #8)
> the problem still happens. Is it possible that something in about:config,
> that the user changed, is causing an issue?

It's possible.  If you go to Help > Troubleshooting Information, you can see all your "Important Modified Preferences."  One of them may be the problem.
Troubleshooting information dump for standard usage.

  Application Basics

        Name
        Firefox

        Version
        23.0.1

        User Agent
        Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:23.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/23.0

        Build Configuration

          about:buildconfig

  Extensions

        Name

        Version

        Enabled

        ID

        Adblock Plus
        2.3.2
        true
        {######}

        LastPass
        2.0.20
        true
        support@lastpass.com

        Lazarus: Form Recovery
        2.3
        true
        lazarus@interclue.com

        Xmarks
        4.2.1
        true
        foxmarks@kei.com

        avast! Online Security
        8.0.1489
        false
        wrc@avast.com

        Logitech SetPoint
        6.5
        false
        {#######}

  Important Modified Preferences

      Name

      Value

        accessibility.typeaheadfind.flashBar
        0

        browser.cache.disk.capacity
        358400

        browser.cache.disk.smart_size.first_run
        false

        browser.cache.disk.smart_size.use_old_max
        false

        browser.cache.disk.smart_size_cached_value
        358400

        browser.places.smartBookmarksVersion
        4

        browser.startup.homepage
        http://www.google.com/

        browser.startup.homepage_override.buildID
        20130814063812

        browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone
        23.0.1

        browser.tabs.warnOnClose
        false

        dom.mozApps.used
        true

        dom.w3c_touch_events.expose
        false

        extensions.lastAppVersion
        23.0.1

        font.internaluseonly.changed
        false

        font.size.variable.x-western
        13

        gfx.direct3d.last_used_feature_level_idx
        0

        gfx.direct3d.prefer_10_1
        true

        network.cookie.prefsMigrated
        true

        places.database.lastMaintenance
        1378305173

        places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages
        104858

        plugin.disable_full_page_plugin_for_types

        plugin.importedState
        true

        plugin.state.nppdf
        0

        privacy.cpd.cookies
        false

        privacy.cpd.downloads
        false

        privacy.cpd.formdata
        false

        privacy.cpd.history
        false

        privacy.cpd.sessions
        false

        privacy.sanitize.migrateFx3Prefs
        true

        privacy.sanitize.timeSpan
        0

        security.warn_viewing_mixed
        false

        storage.vacuum.last.index
        1

        storage.vacuum.last.places.sqlite
        1375899543

  Graphics

        Adapter Description
        Intel(R) HD Graphics 4000

        Adapter Description (GPU #2)
        NVIDIA GeForce GT 630M

        Adapter Drivers
        igdumd64 igd10umd64 igd10umd64 igdumd32 igd10umd32 igd10umd32

        Adapter Drivers (GPU #2)
        nvd3dumx,nvwgf2umx,nvwgf2umx nvd3dum,nvwgf2um,nvwgf2um

        Adapter RAM
        Unknown

        Adapter RAM (GPU #2)
        1024

        Device ID
        0x####

        Device ID (GPU #2)
        0x####

        Direct2D Enabled
        true

        DirectWrite Enabled
        true (#####)

        Driver Date
        1-18-2012

        Driver Date (GPU #2)
        6-21-2013

        Driver Version
        8.15.10.2626

        Driver Version (GPU #2)
        9.18.13.2049

        GPU #2 Active
        false

        GPU Accelerated Windows
        3/3 Direct3D 10

        Vendor ID
        0x8086

        Vendor ID (GPU #2)
        0x10de

        WebGL Renderer
        Google Inc. -- ANGLE (Intel(R) HD Graphics 4000)

        AzureCanvasBackend
        direct2d

        AzureContentBackend
        direct2d

        AzureFallbackCanvasBackend
        cairo

  JavaScript

        Incremental GC
        true

  Accessibility

        Activated
        false

        Prevent Accessibility
        0

  Library Versions

        Expected minimum version

        Version in use

        NSPR
        4.10
        4.10

        NSS
        3.15 Basic ECC
        3.15 Basic ECC

        NSSSMIME
        3.15 Basic ECC
        3.15 Basic ECC

        NSSSSL
        3.15 Basic ECC
        3.15 Basic ECC

        NSSUTIL
        3.15
        3.15
(In reply to Drew Willcoxon :adw from comment #9)
> (In reply to void2258 from comment #7)
> > Does not appear to be a specific add-on. With new profile, problem occurs as
> > soon as ANY addon is enabled, including test pilot.
> 
> Do you know whether all your add-ons use the Add-on SDK?
> 
I have no knowledge of what these add-ons use. Not that disabling all addons but NOT going to safe mode has no effect on the issue, and once it starts in a profile nothing but going to safe mode seems to make it stop.

I have been forced to partially move to chrome. The amount of Google searching that I do at work makes this bug a critical impediment to my job. If it is not fixed, I will have to abandon Firefox completely.
Severity: normal → major
Maybe it's a graphics driver problem.  If you open Firefox's preferences, go to Advanced tab, click the General tab, and uncheck "Use hardware acceleration when available," does the problem still happen?

(In reply to void2258 from comment #7)
> Does not appear to be a specific add-on. With new profile, problem occurs as
> soon as ANY addon is enabled, including test pilot.

I tried installing Test Pilot in a new profile and still couldn't reproduce.

Lots of people use Google, and I haven't heard about widespread problems, so this looks like something particular to your system.
Flags: needinfo?(void2258)
I performed a full reinstall and it still happened. Then I performed a full scour reinstall (manually delete all the residual files, CCleaner on the registry) and now it seems to be working again. The key item seems to have been in C:\ProgramData\Mozilla, which I missed the first time and had to retry. Without deleting it, the problem continued, even with everything else cleared off. As soon as I found and deleted that entire folder, the next reinstall started working.

I have done this only on my 23 branch system. Will try it on my 24 branch system tonight.
Flags: needinfo?(void2258)
So nothing in my about:config looks odd. I'm Using FF 23 on Kubuntu 12.04 and I'm not willing to reinstall everything yet to test this. Lately I noticed that all Google searches are https: by default and every single time I hit "back" (screen, keyboard or mouse) I get this blank page bug. However if I start out with a http: -non secure- search I don't get the problem with the blank page, and this is in normal mode with all add-ons enabled. The only time I get the blank page is when I click "next" on the Google results to go to the next 10 on the list. Otherwise it all acts completely normal.

I suspect that this has a connection to FF using https when using google searches and some (or any) add-on triggers this blank page behavior. 

And just an update that my https profile where I am signed in to all google services is also giving me the error now as well.
Tried it on my 24 branch system as well. Also now behaving. Not sure why since all I could see in that folder were logs. The only odd thing is that on the 24 branch the logo for firefox has gone missing.
Here is a workaround which I tested thoroughly and I am able to reproduce the bug and illuminate it. So it seems this issue is tied in with 2 things? Firefox (v24 and others) and Google (site Tracking).

The WORKAROUND...install this plugin to BLOCK Google tracking until Firefox devs fix this obvious bug.
http://matagus.github.io/remove-google-redirects-addon/
I tried the workaround and within 3 clicks it was back to the blank page. I also have an add-on that I got from Google directly & have had it for years, it's called "Google Analytics Opt-Out Browser Add-on 0.9.6". I disabled that as well thinking it could be contributing to the mess but no luck.

Not every website I visit prompts the blank page when I return to the search results. However whenever I click on wikipedia and then go back it starts the blank page behavior and every site after that is the same. Someone on another site also mentioned answers.microsoft.com and I can confirm the minute I visited that and came back to the Google search relults a blank page appeared.

So for me it all still ends up being the same bug. :(
I'm wondering why this (annoying) bug is still unconfirmed. I experience the exact same problems as described here with Firefox running both on Mac and Linux systems. 

Maybe it helps to indicate that the problem discussed here, that is the peculiar effect of the "back button" after a search with Google, is also brought up on several other sites, such as the Firefox Support forum: 

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/970863
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/971828

The same effect, but on Internet Explorer, is discussed here: 
http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/websearch/XDC8yLYLRO8

Chris
Hey  sev9x@yandex.com,
After you installed the Addon (workaround), you need to restart the browser or the bug remains. Did you do that? I can actually see a sort of SKIP effect after the back button is pressed and the URL does a little burp. And again, I am able to re-introduce the bug on a specific test page if I disable the Addon and restart the browser.

This was one of the tricky points when I was troubleshooting. On another PC of mine, with nearly the same setup, the bug does not exist.
@themadproducer,
I did restart the browser. However just to test again to be sure I installed it again and disabled the other Google Opt-Out addon. It remained on the first try. I restarted the browser again just for kicks and again it happened. I went and updated my addons just to see what happens and yours updatedfrom v0.4 to v1.1.0. So I restarted the browser again and it still happened, and... once again restart... [insert really, really sad face here].

On your website the github link installs v0.4 and I tested that it does not work for me. When updated, it becomes v1.1.0 and again does not work for me. The previous time I installed v1.1.0 from FF addons site. I get the same results when I hit the back button in browser, or the keyboard Backspace key or my mouse's back key. It also happens if you right click and choose back or if you use the drop down from the browser's back button mend. So for me "back" in any incarnation results in the same action.

I see that Chrome was having this issue as well. I have Chromium installed but have not had that issue, I also rarely use it because FF is the best by a zillion miles, minus this little weird issue. I suspect Google is sending code that FF is haveing trouble digesting, I just wish it would become obvious and the dev's could squash Google's error. :o

I also wanted to add to everyone that this blank page issue appears here as well https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/971279
looks like another bug was filed as well,
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=878456

forums.mozillazine also has a page discussing it, sorry no link at the moment.
sev9x@yandex.com
Send post me a link that 100% does NOT work for you. I will test it here at my end.
sev9x@yandex.com
MAJOR BREAK THROUGH here...ready!!!

With the Google BLOCKING addon completely disabled, I can now 100% make the bug start and stop.

I have an addon named Tool Bar Buttons.
Now it's not the ADDON per say, but when I am on the Google search page for this...
https://www.google.ca/search?q=isolated+vs+compound+bodybuilding&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&gws_rd=cr&ei=CWlKUt2LBsLbyQG2x4DgCw
...if I click my ENLARGE button lets say, 3x, on this Google search page, (so that the page and text is larger and easier to read) ...then click on the top or 2nd link, then go back (via back button or keyboard)...then I get a blank page IMMEDIATELY on first try. Clicking both the forward and backward buttons 20x... results in the same blank page.

BUT...if I go back to NORMAL page size view on the google search page, and click refresh, then the blank issue ceases. I have tried this test a dozen times and it's been consistent.

ARE YOU resizing the page view like I am?
This would give me a plausible explanation as to why it is NOT happening on similar setups in my home...which I am about to go and test now.

Now I am a bit confused as to WHY the Google Tracker blocking addon had any effect before. But tonight, it actually let me down a few times. That's what got me thinking about..."What I had done differently?"

Let me know what your results are.
Here is the link of the Google ad I am actually clicking on....but you will notice that the URL will quickly change and become a shorter version.
http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&ved=0CDsQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bodybuilding.com%2Ffun%2Fsclark55.htm&ei=CWlKUsTcCaH7yAGx1IG4AQ&usg=AFQjCNHj9lmvbe-xtlc5W3qSoLPgYk86Sg&bvm=bv.53371865,d.aWc
Blocks: 878456
Component: Untriaged → Layout
Product: Firefox → Core
OH man.....(*&(*&(*
Another variable.
READY?

Scenario #1
If I type the URL https://www.google.ca/
And I increase the page view by 3x...
And search for the term: isolated vs compound bodybuilding
I click on either of the top 2 headings (may be different in your geo region)
I can most of the time, recreate the issue
I can eliminate it by normalizing the page view size of the google search and refreshing the page once.

Scenario #2
If I launch Google via my Google tool bar in FF...URL is: https://www.google.ca/?gws_rd=cr&ei=s21KUrW7OcTYyQGDx4GAAg and paste the term: isolated vs compound bodybuilding   ....or just paste it directly into the tool bar...then the issue does NOT happen regardless of page view size!
Scenario #3
Another strange inconsistency complicating test messed up test....
If instead of using the tool bar, I copy the toolbar's landing url which is:  https://www.google.ca/?gws_rd=cr&ei=s21KUrW7OcTYyQGDx4GAAg, and paste it directly into the browser, and test the scenario with enlarged view...BAM.....back with the blank page nonsense?
OK last one...
If I click my zoom page view button once or twice...the issue will not happen.
As soon as I click it 3x or more...the issue is back.
I go back to normal view, and or click zoom once or twice, refresh the page, and the issue is gone.
Very consistent and reproduce-able.
Timothy, this is sure sounding like some sort of graphics issue...  Could you take a look?
Flags: needinfo?(tnikkel)
I didn't sift through all the comments here but I'm pretty sure I've seen this same bug (on linux and mac). And I had assumed it was an issue with google.

I just reproduced the bug now. I used DOM inspector to look at the google results page that is blank and there is indeed nothing that should be generating any rendering, but I do see a lot of display: none and visibility: hidden and a table with a tbody but not tr's or td's. So I think that layout/graphics is correctly displaying the DOM as given.

The question is whether the DOM is that way because google does something wrong or we have a bug.
Flags: needinfo?(tnikkel)
Status: UNCONFIRMED → NEW
Ever confirmed: true
It's also entirely possible that Google is hiding content somehow on "user is about to navigate away" and that this only causes a problem when we manage to bfcache the page...  that might also explain why this is hard to reproduce, since bfcache can be finicky.

For people who can reproduce the bug: Does setting the "browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewers" preference to 0 make the problem go away?
Yeah, that seems to fix it.
Boris...

1) The setting you mentioned seems to fix the bug.
2) Even though my workaround with the page view size (above 3x zoom) can cause the bug, your suggestion fixes that as well. (so does mine if I go back to normal view but yours is obviously superior.)

QUESTIONS to you...
1) what does this setting mean?
2) By default, the value was set to -1, but now it's at zero as you suggested. Is -1 normal.
3) Do you know if this setting, set to zero, will cause any side effects or other limitations?

Thanks
I can confirm that I always use 3x (exactly) magnification on Google. I can reproduce that going to zero stops the problem. I always get a blank page on any wikipedia visit and it has stopped by going to zero.

I did not change, add/remove, any other setting in my FF before testing that the zoom function is the problem for me as well. I then changed the "browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewers" to 0, restarted the browser and went baxk to 3x zoom. All seemed to be functioning normally.

I also would like to know the answer to;
3) Do you know if this setting, set to zero, will cause any side effects or other limitations?

because I feel like my browser slowed down a little after I changed that setting. It feels a bit sluggish.

@themadproducer Bravo on figuring out the zoom issue!
Thanks  sev9x@yandex.com, Boris and Timothy
No longer blocks: 878456
I can reproduce the bug on Win7 Firefox 24.0 and "browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewers" trick solves the problem for me too.

It is suggested on http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/websearch/XDC8yLYLRO8 that the problem is related to instant predictions. Indeed, when I get a blank google page after the back button, it is not immediately blank. For a very short time, I see the search results, then the results disappear, finally the message "About 37,600 results (0.28 seconds)" disappears. I see the same animation if I open a search page, select everything in the search box and delete it.
The code of the text box: <input id="gbqfq" autocomplete="off" ...>. If I set autocomplete="on" from the inspector then I can't reproduce the bug.
On the main SuMo thread, we currently have 382 clicks for "I have this problem too." https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/970863

Users have been reporting that the workaround of setting browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewers=0 is effective.
This is working for me so far:

I went into about config and typed in log in the search bar. Then I made the following changes:
This is working for me so far:

I went into about config and typed in log in the search bar. Then I made the following changes:

for browser.bookmarks.editDialog.firstEditField I changed it from user set to default

for browser.search.log I changed it from default to user set on toggle mode
30.0a1 (2014-03-17) still has this bug
- changes in comment 40 don't help here, so set both settings at default
- changes in comment 37 seem to work
had the same problem sadly neither solution (comment 37,40) worked.

Strangely it never happens at encrypted.google.com 

Can anyone check?
(In reply to warp.extreme from comment #42)
> had the same problem sadly neither solution (comment 37,40) worked.

My settings are now:
browser.bookmarks.editDialog.firstEditField   default  string   namePicker
browser.search.log   default   boolean   false
browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewers   user set   integer   0
and they seem to have resolved it for me; though there may be other settings...
HTH
using ff30a2 and i tried again with the settings...no luck 

the two first ones are default anyway

Maybe I have a different idea about resolved, but "resolved" means working every time and with everything on default... imho
Also I have this problem with just this simple steps:
go to 
https://google.com
enter search team
only getting blank result (only search bar open)
100% of the time!

does WORK 100% on https://encrypted.google.com


Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:30.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/30.0
(Aurora 30a2)
I solved it. I was using google.com as my home page. Change that to the Firefox default homepage (which is still a Google search). It gives them a little ad revenue which they should have anyway.
As I researched this problem a bit: Someone happens to know what/if there is a difference (regarding website code) between searching via http://www.google.com/#q=search term and https://www.google.com/search?q=search term, is the first one the instant search and the second one the normal search? View Source looks similar, but hard to tell with the compressed JS. But even with the second URL, instant search gets used when entering a new search term and works fine regarding the back button. Anyway, with the first URL I can reproduce the issue for a certain website, for the second one I cannot.
Not sure if another testcase is needed, but this way I can reproduce is needed: New profile, open https://www.google.com/#q=http://www.abendblatt.de/region/norderstedt/article1971900/Neuer-Fussboden-fuer-die-Sporthalle.html, click on link, wait for page to load, click on the back button, search results are gone. In contrast, https://www.google.com/search?q=http://www.abendblatt.de/region/norderstedt/article1971900/Neuer-Fussboden-fuer-die-Sporthalle.html works fine.
While intermittent, this bug is still very easy to reproduce with regular use; It happens to me all the time and I've gotten so frustrated that I am no longer using FireFox as my browser. It occurs most often when navigating between search result pages, not individual search results.

Version: 30.0

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Navigate to: www.google.com (observe that the actual page loaded is at https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl)
2. Enter any search term, begin the search, and await its results
3. Click on any result on the first page
4. Use the back button to return to the first page of search results
5. Using the 'Next' button in the footer of the search results, go to the next page of results
6. Click any search result, wait for it to load, then click 'Back'
7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 until the issue is observed

Reproducible Operating Systems:
MAC OS Mavericks, Windows Server 2008/2008R2/2012 (x64/x86), Windows 7 (x64/x86), Windows 8 and 8.1 (x64/x86).

Notes:
1. Does not occur in Google Chrome 3.60.1985 or Internet Explorer 11.0.9600.
Also had the issue for quite some time. Resetting the zoom level of the Google page back to 100% solved it for me.
Setting browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewers to 0 is not a option for me, as I don't want a page reload when using the back button...

In case you need some more test data: Setting Google to 90% and having the default 100% for the search result destination page pretty consistently breaks the view (at least for me). Different other combinations of zoom levels also break it, but not for all search results.
I had this bug too.  I rest the zoom level, and the bug vanished. I have just tried zooming in & out and checking the back button, and resetting the zoom seems to have fixed this very annoying problem.
I use google.co.uk as my home page.
I found another solution to this problem.  Go to your Google settings: https://www.google.com/preferences?hl=en&fg=1.  Then turn off Instant Predictions by selecting "Never show instant results".  This does not disable the as-you-type search term predictions, it just turns off instant search results, which I don't find particularly useful anyway. I don't get blank pages at all anymore when I go back to my search results.  I use NoSquint and didn't change any other settings, and this solves the problem completely.
Yeah I get this too from time to time on every of my systems so far... Indeed it appears that it's related to google instant.
No need to reiterate what has been discovered a year ago: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=908446#c35
Any recent changes impacting this bug?  I was using some of the workarounds; but since circa 37.0a1 (2014-12-12), the problem has returned on its own.
Read comment #51.
You can fix/get around this problem by: turning off instant prediction results in your Google search settings (preferences page).
Seeing this in Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; rv:36.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/36.0 SeaMonkey/2.33.1, so it's cross platform/app.  Haven't had time to investigate yet.
Note that this behavior is also present in Internet Explorer 9 and Safari 8 (latest updates), without plugins.
I just switched back to Firefox from Chrome and discovered I was getting this problem with Firefox 40 on Windows 7. The solution described in Comment 51 (https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=908446#c51) solved the problem for me.
I am having the same problem as everyone else. Win7 with firefox 40.0.3 

When this first happened I turned off instant search. The problem was resolved for a while. It then came back. To fix it again all I had to do was to go to the google preferences page and return again without changing any settings and the problem disappeared.

I have seen the same symptoms occur on a workmates google chrome browser, if it wasn't for that I'd accuse google of deliberately breaking firefox ;)
A quick update. Not a fix but a workaround.

I installed YesScript and disabled javascript on google - problem fixed :) and much faster rendering.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/yesscript

Marking this as Resolved > Worksforme since it cannot be reproduced anymore on the latest versions of Firefox Nightly 96.0a1 (2021-11-29), beta 95.0b12 or release 94.0.2 on Windows 10.
If anyone can still reproduce this issue either re-open this ticket or file a new one.

Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 2 years ago
Resolution: --- → WORKSFORME
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