application.html.erb

    $(document).ready(function() {
        if (window.location.search.length > 0) {

        // crunch the window.location.search to pull the query value
        var parsedQuery = jQuery.map(window.location.search.replace('?', '').split("&"), function(val, i){return [val.split('=')[0], val.split('=')[1]]});
        var queryValue = parsedQuery[parsedQuery.indexOf('query') + 1].replace('+', ' ');

        if (queryValue && queryValue != null && queryValue != '') {
          $('.search form input[type=text]').val(queryValue);
          $('.search form input[type=text]').attr('original_value', queryValue);
        }
      }
    });