keyword.URL removal

[Timvde]

Bug 738818 landed, which removed the ability to set your own keyword.URL. Instead, the location bar now searches the provider selected in the search bar.

This change:
- Removed the ability to have two active search engines at once
- Removed the ability to set custom engines, e.g. using Google's Browse By Name
- Actually rendered location bar search completely useless, as you have to use the search bar to change the provider anyway
- Is very inconsistent in my opinion. The behaviour of the location bar changes depending on the state of the search bar.

To be fair, I also have to state the positive sides of course:
- It can't be hijacked anymore to change the location bar search engine
- Anything else?

If anyone has got tips to revert this (other than using older builds of Firefox), please help me out

[edit] Oh, and just in case: please don't spam the bug. That's not what Bugzilla is for. [/edit]

[Fanolian]

This also change the behaviour of search bar in about:home.
However, the search engine on about:home updates only when you reload the page. Bug 860119 will fix this.

edit: I thought Australis removes the search bar? (at least in the default setting? I didn't follow the UX discussion.)

[Drumbrake]

This change:
- Removed the ability to have two active search engines at once
- Removed the ability to set custom engines, e.g. using Google's Browse By Name
- Actually rendered location bar search completely useless, as you have to use the search bar to change the provider anyway

Who in their right mind thinks this is good in any way ?

[lithopsian]

I agree this is a step backwards. For want of a tiny piece of UI, they force one half of the Firefox world to use the search bar when the other half is busy trying to get rid of it.

The obvious workaround would be to add a new engine using the search service, and make it the first:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/doc ... gine%28%29

[Drumbrake]

To be fair, I also have to state the positive sides of course:
- It can't be hijacked anymore to change the location bar search engine

Nonsense,following this line of reasoning if you switch off your modem you'll be a lot more safer...you can't dumb down anything and everything to protect "average users",it's ultimately up to them to learn how to be safe on the web and how to correctly use a computer,starting maybe with giving a shot to operating systems less prone to intrusions and hijacking,learning to steer clear of toolbars and crapware and so on...

[Timvde]

Drumbrake: That's the reasoning they provide. I totally agree with you. They could easily create a warning (like they do with third party add-ons) or create a button to revert it back to default. Heck, they could just incorporate it in the already existing "Restore defaults" button in the search engine manager.

[Drumbrake]

Absolutely,sorry if my reply was a bit rude...you're so right,all this disruption to one of the most valuable and versatile features of Firefox,when they could have just added a "reset search engine" feature and be done with it.

[Caspid]

I'm not sure what recently inspired Mozilla to focus on removing options. What's the most appropriate/effective avenue for expressing dissent?

[dao-g]

- Actually rendered location bar search completely useless, as you have to use the search bar to change the provider anyway
- Is very inconsistent in my opinion. The behaviour of the location bar changes depending on the state of the search bar.

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=335781

[tbs]

I'm not sure what recently inspired Mozilla to focus on removing options. What's the most appropriate/effective avenue for expressing dissent?

http://limi.net/checkboxes-that-kill/

[StyleThing]

positive change is quite valuable imo.. not for you and me, but for people who don't know how to "computer" and install programs Next>Next>EnabledNotNeededCrapNext>Finish and then get their adressbar search hijacked

[Caspid]

I'm not sure what recently inspired Mozilla to focus on removing options. What's the most appropriate/effective avenue for expressing dissent?

http://limi.net/checkboxes-that-kill/

That's not what the article's about at all. This is literally removing options, not simply making the game-breaking ones harder to access.

positive change is quite valuable imo.. not for you and me, but for people who don't know how to "computer" and install programs Next>Next>EnabledNotNeededCrapNext>Finish and then get their adressbar search hijacked

Nonsense,following this line of reasoning if you switch off your modem you'll be a lot more safer...

[Jaggedalien]

I think this is a good change (for the average user). Now if you change the search provider, it changes everywhere. You can always see which search provider you are currently using.

If you are interested in using multiple search providers, just use keywords.
An example for all those who might not know that feature:
-> Manage Search Engines -> Edit Keyword -> set "w" for the Wikipedia search engine
Then type "w firefox" into the urlbar. It will search for "firefox" on Wikipedia.
You can also bookmark Google's Browse By Name or any other URL and then add a keyword to that.

[GSam]

I think this is a good change (for the average user). Now if you change the search provider, it changes everywhere. You can always see which search provider you are currently using.

If you are interested in using multiple search providers, just use keywords.
An example for all those who might not know that feature:
-> Manage Search Engines -> Edit Keyword -> set "w" for the Wikipedia search engine
Then type "w firefox" into the urlbar. It will search for "firefox" on Wikipedia.
You can also bookmark Google's Browse By Name or any other URL and then add a keyword to that.

One of the downsides to keywords is that you sometimes need to use them in your search terms. Chrome has an option to disable the search and is probably one of the few bits of functionality that I prefer Chrome for.

As a whole, I don't know how much I like this change. I'd have to try it for myself, but my search bar is almost never changed from Google. I hardly use the search bar regardless, but there are some cases where the address bar doesn't do a search when I want it to.

[Caspid]

Searching from the address bar has always taken much, much longer than searching from the search bar for me, for some reason.