Firefox Creates 'A Smarter, Simpler Address Bar' (mozilla.org) 51
"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:5, Funny)
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?
WTF? (Score:1)
You can now perform actions ..... just by typing into the address bar.
WTF? Is it 1983 again? Have you ever heard of this new fangled thing called a GUI?
I'm not plugging Macs here, but... (Score:3)
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.
Safari has done this for ages.
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.
Spotlight already searches bookmarks and history.
Re: (Score:2)
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
Re: (Score:2)
Firefox hasn't been slower than Chrome since Quantum was released. In fact you need to be running your browser of an outright potato to notice any difference at all.
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: (Score:1, Informative)
Or just, you know, enable the search box from the Customize toolbar menu.
Re: (Score:2)
Why doesn't adding the search bar to the UI automatically disable search from the (take the hint Mozilla) address bar? If I make a typographical error entering an internal URL, the last thing I want my browser to do is search for it on the internet.
Re:Classical Search Bar (CSB) (Score:5, 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:Classical Search Bar (CSB) (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
A malformed URL will be sent directly to Google, along with any secrets it may contain.
Can you give an example of how to malform a URL and how big of a risk you think this is? Firefox doesn't send something to Google unless you really REALLY can't type in something.
In fact you only need to type 3 of the 4 characters in for it to assume anything following is a URL. like htp://dslfkajshbdf will not be sent to google. In fact if you do any one of multiple misspellings of http, or if what you type contains a domain+TLD you can screw up virtually everything else and it'll still think you're typing
Re: (Score:1)
"Can you give an example of how to malform a URL and how big of a risk you think this is? "
Copy - Paste; Oops I copied too much or too little of the line.
Re: (Score:3)
You can remove those functions by unchecking stuff under "Address Bar — Firefox Suggest" in the Search section of the settings.
I have everything unchecked except "Browsing History", which is the sole thing I want to search from the address bar. It doesn't appear, at least, to be sending what I type to any search engine, or at least it doesn't return any "suggestions" from them, like the default behavior.
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
Re: (Score:2)
GUis were a solved problem by the 2000s
No they weren't. Maybe to you, a power user, but GUIs of the 2000 were insanely complex to end users making computers needlessly difficult to use. GUIs need to cater to multiple needs. Your problem is they no longer cater to just you.
Simple - change for its own sake.
Change costs money. There's no such thing as change for its own sake. There's always an underlying reason, especially when done in a for profit enterprise. People who think something is change for change's sake are basically declaring they haven't thought something through and
Re: ...and every attacker/abuser rejoiced (Score:2)
Yeah, I remember the insanely complex to use Windows XP.... oh, wait...
Re: (Score:2)
Do you remember building a timemachine? Because you said the problem was solved *by the 2000s*, and last I remember Windows XP wasn't released in the 90s.
But even leaving that aside, yes, much of the administration aspects of Windows XP was actually understood by very few of its users. Beyond changing the mouse pointer size and desktop background a massive number of people reached for their teenage children to help them do basic changes to the system, even things such as connecting to a wifi network were a
Re: (Score:2)
Re: ...and every attacker/abuser rejoiced (Score:2)
Just look at the degradation of the Windows UI. The Windows UI peaked around XP and 7, then they started to degrade it. Borderless windows has resulted in many man-hours lost.
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:5, 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
Re: (Score:2)
That's a good rant but ... you're the weird one here. I don't mean that offensively, I mean literally every single person I know uses the browser "smart bar" or whatever you call it since it's not just URLs anymore, for search.
Hell I know people who *exclusively* search. I.e. their process of going to a website is searching for it and hitting the top search result.
Re: (Score:2)
Amen, yo. Firefox periodically ruins their browsers, and they sure as fuck messed up Eudora.
Easy their grandpa (Score:2)
You are missing out on the best way to manage bookmarks without being an OCD lunatic. You can just throw anything you want to bookmark into a giant pile and then type a few keywords in the address bar and up pops that bookmark.
I used to spend stupid amounts of time managing bookmarks until I realized I could do that. And Firefox does it better than any browser out there. So much so that it's uncomfortable going to Chrome or edge.
Oh and it can search your recent histo
Yeah, no (Score:5, 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.
Re: (Score:2)
If you're retarded, it is. Firefox, Google, Microsoft, and every other company thinks you're retarded. Who are you to demand anything otherwise?
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:4, Insightful)
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 have to keep re-inventing these dangerous UX ideas that make it easier and easier to fool the unaware?
Type a command, and Firefox takes care of it
So if I want to know how to delete one or a few downloads, and search for something like "delete downloads", it will now delete everything I ever downloaded? Who wanted this feature?
Cleaner URLs with smarter security cues
So I will know that bankofameric.com is secure in that it uses https, but not in that it's not the same as bankofamerica.com? (That's right, Cyrillic "".)
Let me guess, you also let javascript/WebAPIs change the search term in realtime, because someone somewhere said "maybe someone can use this...?"?
Making single form that 1) identifies wherever the hell you're supposed to be, 2) gives a shallow-to-the-point-of-being-false impression of security, and 3) performs actions that affects your workspace and files is just insane.
Mozilla has moved well past setting money on fire for things no one wants. Now they do it for things I would actually pay money to never experience. ...
Wait, is that their new marketing plan?
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.
Sounds... unnecessary (Score:4, Insightful)
Or at least would be unnecessary if they didn't do that anti-privacy merge of the search and URL bars and then even removed the search box by default some time ago. Search should go in search, URLs in the URL bar.
The other issue is have they fixed the bug that means if you enter "http:// or IP address" and it fails, it tries https and even if that fails too, permanently rewrites your URL to https [slashdot.org]:?
It's fucking annoying having to cut and paste the URL of my router (rather than just keep refreshing) while I wait for it to come up because some idiot at Mozilla thought nobody could possibly be intentionally trying to use HTTP with a server that isn't up yet.
Re: (Score:2)
User error mate. Mozilla does obfuscate the address if DNS times out or is unavailable. Simply hit F5 to refresh. Works just fine here.
by trimming "https://" from secure sites (Score:2)
So we can no longer easily copy the link for other purposes.
Am I glad.. (Score:2)
..to use Pale Moon by default and only (unfortunately) need Firefox for two websites.
I like a browser that doesn't try to "simplify" the URL bar beyond using it to type in http adresses.
Just no (Score:2)
Search should not be done in the ADDRESS bar. The address bar should be JUST the address and it should not hide any portion of the fully qualified domain name that you are connecting to. It also should never take any action (such as streaming your typing in real time) and not send anything until you hit enter or click to continue. Doing so is a security risk and too many times, search bars that grab focus unexpectedly get passwords or other sensitive data entered into them if you are distracted. Same for hi
Everything Old Is New Again (Score:2)
I never let them take away my search bar, but congrats on reinventing the wheel.
What is annoying, though, is that a lot of web sites (especially developer-oriented ones) are adding keyboard shortcuts that override the usual Ctrl-K used to selecting the search bar. I have long-established muscle memory for the following sequence to open a new tab and perform a search without touching the mouse: Ctrl-T, Ctrl-K, type in my search terms, hit Enter. When that doesn't work because of a 'convenient shortcut' on t
enshitification continues (Score:2)
Mozilla continues their quest to make Firefox a shittier version of chrome.
Take away useful features, add useless crap.