It happens more and more frequently these days - you install some software or other, and the next time you type a few keywords in your Firefox URL bar, instead of your beloved Google you have been hijacked by Bing.

Well, Bing, read my Avatar.

It's not hard to get rid of, if you know what to do.

1. In the URL bar, type "about:config" (without the quotes) and hit Enter.
   
2. Answer the question with "I'll be careful, I promise!"
   
3. In the "Filter" box, type "keyword.URL" (without the quotes).
   
4. Double-click the resulting entry.
   
5. Clear the text box that comes up, and replace it with this string:

   
   

   http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&q=

   
   
6. Notice that there are no spaces anywhere in that string.)

That's all. Google should now be your default search engine.

As far as I know, this should work if you've been hijacked by Ask, or any other search engine as well.

I hate stealth installations. Even if there's a pre-checked box somewhere that's easy to miss, installation should ALWAYS (yes, I'm shouting) by opt-in, not opt-out. Filthy buggers.