Firefox Creates 'A Smarter, Simpler Address Bar' (mozilla.org) 27
"Firefox's address bar just got an upgrade," Mozilla writes on their blog:
Keep your original search visible
When you perform a search, your query now remains visible in the address bar instead of being replaced by the search engine's URL. Whereas before your address bar was filled with long, confusing URLs, now it's easier to refine or repeat searches... [Clicking an icon left of the address bar even pulls up a list of search-engine choices under the heading "This time search with..."]
Search your tabs, bookmarks and history using simple keywords
You can access different search modes in the address bar using simple, descriptive keywords like @bookmarks, @tabs, @history, and @actions, making it faster and easier to find exactly what you need.
Type a command, and Firefox takes care of it
You can now perform actions like "clear history," "open downloads," or "take a screenshot" just by typing into the address bar. This turns the bar into a practical productivity tool — great for users who want to stay in the flow...
Cleaner URLs with smarter security cues
We've simplified the address bar by trimming "https://" from secure sites, while clearly highlighting when a site isn't secure. This small change improves clarity without sacrificing awareness.
"The new address bar is now available in Firefox version 138," Mozilla writes, calling the new address bar faster, more intuitive "and designed to work the way you do."
When you perform a search, your query now remains visible in the address bar instead of being replaced by the search engine's URL. Whereas before your address bar was filled with long, confusing URLs, now it's easier to refine or repeat searches... [Clicking an icon left of the address bar even pulls up a list of search-engine choices under the heading "This time search with..."]
Search your tabs, bookmarks and history using simple keywords
You can access different search modes in the address bar using simple, descriptive keywords like @bookmarks, @tabs, @history, and @actions, making it faster and easier to find exactly what you need.
Type a command, and Firefox takes care of it
You can now perform actions like "clear history," "open downloads," or "take a screenshot" just by typing into the address bar. This turns the bar into a practical productivity tool — great for users who want to stay in the flow...
Cleaner URLs with smarter security cues
We've simplified the address bar by trimming "https://" from secure sites, while clearly highlighting when a site isn't secure. This small change improves clarity without sacrificing awareness.
"The new address bar is now available in Firefox version 138," Mozilla writes, calling the new address bar faster, more intuitive "and designed to work the way you do."
Yo, Dawg! (Score:2)
We heard that you were getting used to the locations of menu and setting items. So we moved it all to an even less intuitive location on the address bar. Cuz, who the fuck uses an address bar for addresses nowadays? Fuck those address bar users. Am I rite?
Re: (Score:1)
Not all of this is Firefox's fault. Google has been slowing down Firefox for years [fosspost.org] by sniffing the user agent string.
Outside of google sites, google has in a large part been quickly introducing random standards internally, rolling them out, then making them work on their sites. This of course means that Firefox "breaks" due to unannounced changes. Throw in random web designers not accounting for Firefox due to not caring, and you have a recipe for disaster.
This isn't even covering the large number of users
That's fine, but... (Score:2)
A refresh of the address bar won't save you if your entire UI is terrible. Fix the look and feel of the tabs, and no scrolling, please, like everyone has been asking you to do for a long, long time first.
Pointless (Score:2)
Fuck software "upgrades". There is no practical value to you. It worked well enough years ago and no amount of tinkering will make a significant difference to you.
The company on the other hand must justify paying the UX people, so
Worse than my ex wife, making tiny details into some kind of dramatic event. This is too trivial for even
Re: Pointless (Score:2)
Your last sentence just described every woman who ever lived.
Classical Search Bar (CSB) (Score:4, Informative)
The problem they're trying to address is something Mozilla created when they removed the search field. It can be solved by installing "Classical Search Bar" https://addons.mozilla.org/fir... [mozilla.org]. In this way the user can see the search terms (the problem they were trying to solve) while also never losing view of the URL. The CSB extension makes it also much simpler to set and change the default search engine, something Mozilla removed long ago to capture more $$$ with their Google deal.
Re:Classical Search Bar (CSB) (Score:4, Informative)
Rather than installing a shady plugin, you can add a search bar by right-clicking whitespace within the main toolbar, then "Customize toolbar..."
Re: (Score:2)
You're right, what the plugin does is to restore the ability to change the default search engine in the form of an icon next to the search area which you indeed have to put back from the customization. Note that you can review the code https://github.com/tiansh/clas... [github.com]
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
The "shortcuts" are rather long too. I use single character ones, e.g. "w [search term]" to search Wikipedia.
The only areas I'd really like to see improvements on the desktop are sync (it should optionally sync add-on settings), and uBlock performance. uBlock is affected by the speed at which Firefox can do pattern matching, which is slower than Chrome. It's not such a big deal on a modern desktop, but on mobile it's not insignificant I think.
Re: (Score:2)
They never learn... a big reason it succeeded in the past was the powerful extension system. They crippled that system and impose whatever they want onto their users who've largely LEFT. They upset power users like myself because we are a minority to be ignored without realizing we often DECIDE the default browser for 1000s of users who either will not change it or are not allowed to do so.
What they are completely blind to realizing is that just about everything in the browser should be an extension. Create
...and every attacker/abuser rejoiced (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: ...and every attacker/abuser rejoiced (Score:5, Insightful)
UX design in general has been swirling the toilet bowl for years with browsers, windows, linux desktops and up to a point, Mac. GUis were a solved problem by the 2000s so what could the new UI kids do to justify their jobs? Simple - change for its own sake.
Re: (Score:2)
This. Minor tweaks would probably be worth giving up simply to hold back all the unnecessary changes.
Re: (Score:2)
There have been some useful advancements. The way Chrome handles tabs on Android is vastly superior to Firefox, for example.
On desktop we could do with some better tab management, but so far nobody has really figured it out. Chrome had groups for years, and Firefox copied it, but it's not a good solution. Side-by-side tabs would be useful. You can have side-by-side windows but having it in the same window would be good.
Integration of progress meters into tabs would be good, like how Windows integrates them
There used to be a simpler address bar. (Score:2)
Available now? (Score:2)
I have 138.0.4 (latest) and none of this is in my address bar. The blog post doesn't say anything about needing to enable it.
"Available"? Or "Forced"? (Score:4, Insightful)
The new address bar is now available in Firefox version 138
I NEVER use the URL bar for search - it's ONLY for URL's. And I WANT the ENTIRE URL there, in case I'm copying and pasting it somewhere else. Furthermore, I don't want anything I might type there - deliberately or accidentally - to be interpreted by a bloated, overreaching, uppity URL bar, as a fucking command of any kind other than "go to this address".
Mozilla, just fuck the fuck off. You have abso-fucking-lutely ZERO clues about the way your users work. If you did, the vast majority of UI "improvements" you've made over the past decade would never have seen the light of day.
Clearly I'm not an outlier here. Do you not listen to the feedback in your user forums? Do you not look at your constantly-shrinking market share, and realize that your self-professed omniscience regarding your users' wants and needs is a cluelessly conceited illusion? Can't your devs be content with making us jump through hoops just to restore sane scrollbar functionality, and leave the rest of the UI alone?
Your organization seems filled with self-aggrandizing wannabe empire builders. Sadly, all they've done is to almost destroy the empire which Mozilla once was. And they seem hell-bent on finishing that destruction.
One definition of 'insanity' is 'repeating the same actions over and over again, expecting a different outcome'. By this definition, Mozilla is insane, and has been for a long time. See a shrink, and get your shit together. Please.
PS AFAIC the UI of your latest version of Thunderbird sucks ass as well - a couple of minor improvements in a sea of WTF. And in my distro I haven't been able to find a way to revert. You folks need to deflate your bloated egos and stop drinking the "change for change's sake" Kool-Aid.
/rant
Yeah, no (Score:4, Informative)
I always turn stuff like that off. I do want to see the actual address I am on.
It isn't more "secure" to hide stuff from me.
Extra permissions (Score:2)
I'm not about to grant my web browser the additional permissions necessary for Firefox to hook into my OS and do most of these things.
"Clear history" obviously stays in the browser, but that's not something I do with any frequency. Actually, it's not something I do at all. I
Important Question (Score:2)
If you install a newer Firefox, how do you disable this behavior? Because these ideas are terrible.
Keep your original search visible
Use a search bar.
You can access different search modes in the address bar using simple, descriptive keywords like @bookmarks, @tabs, @history, and @actions
So you still have keyword searches. That's what you've re-invented. We've had that since, what? v0.9? Except now there's an @
Whereas before your address bar was filled with long, confusing URLs, now...
How many times do we ha
Re: (Score:2)
Whereas before your address bar was filled with long, confusing URLs, now...
How many times do we have to keep re-inventing these dangerous UX ideas that make it easier and easier to fool the unaware?
This.
A while back, I was trying out some search alternatives. I went to one (recommended) site and entered my query. The search URL was immediately redirected to Google. Not really what I had in mind.
I guess someone must have slipped Mozilla a few bucks to better hide this sort of fuckwittery.
I prefer full address (Score:2)
I often take screenshot over remote video call (E.g. Zoom) to capture url people are using for presentation (instead of interrupting speakers and asking for the url). Often times people jump around multiple pages and only one or two are interesting to me which I don't have, so I just take a screenshot. I hate when users use safari and all you can see is hostname. As long as it shows enough information that if I copy/paste, it will go to the right url, I am ok.