Having the following experience? When typing search terms into the Safari (desktop) address bar, hitting Return/Enter, expecting a search result page … and yet nothing happens? You’ll also note that no search suggestions are automatically popping up below the search bar.
Normally the address bar in Safari doubles up as a search bar. Type in whatever you like, hit Return, and your nominated search engine will load with the results. If enabled, you’ll also see suggested results showing up as you type. Recently, I found this all stopped working. Which meant the only way I could search via Safari was to first browse to the search engine I want to use (https://ecosia.org in my case).
The Quick Fix (for some)
The solution may be a quick fix. Try disabling the “Include search engine suggestions” option. This will also (automatically) disable the “Include Safari suggestions” option (if it was enabled). Close the Safari Preferences. Test the search bar again. Just type in “test” or whatever you like, and hit the Enter/Return key on your keyboard. Search results will hopefully display.
I found I was able to re-enable the “Include search engine suggestions” (and “Include Safari suggestions”), and it continued to work as expected.
Done deal.