Safari not working properly

i waited a long time to update to Safari, but once I did, could only kick myself for waiting so long. It was easy, . .. accessed info faster, and most of all, I loved the new feature at the top of the page that enabled me to click on icons to navigate to other websites I visited most often.

That option suddenly disappeared this evening. Now the only website I can access is that of my regular website and that of my back-up browser, Firefox.

Even the line that previously allowed me to type in the address of other websites has disappeared.

I'm assuming that it might be related to a change in my PayPal profile, but also don't understand how/why that would have happened.

The change occurred after a series of warnings from PayPal informing me that a third-party server might be using my email address for IPN (instant Payment Notices) . . .threatening to stop notiying me of payments to my "business account."

Actually the only payments made are for a rare sale on eBay, but when they have occured in the last few weeks, they have automatically generated as many as two IPNs within 24 hours. Since both PayPal and my service provider disclaimed any responsibility, I just ignored the warnings until tonight, when I finally was notified that PayPal would not be notifying me of any further payments.

After explaining the problem to a PayPal rep in the IPN department, he reset my profile (by suspending and then restarting the IPNs. )

But within minutes, the Safari features described above also disappeared, leaving me with no way (include a URL address line) for accessing those sites.

Opening Safari only takes me to my home page (i.e., my email provider); Firefox at least lets me use Google to locate other websites.

All I really would like is to figure out how to restore the original Safari features. Closing Safari and restarting doesn't do it.