Get old location bar behavior back?

[Euchre]

I am working on a conclusive solution to what I will term the "Awful Bar" because like so many of you, I really don't like it. The ONLY benefit I gather from it for myself is the fact that it can pluck what I type from the middle of a URL, but that's not something everyone wants and the way it's been working isn't that great yet (it's adaptive, it may learn - we'll see). Meanwhile to cut back on the frustration with it and get something like the old behavior back:

The suggestion to adjust in about:config is the key. This is where the real changes can be made, and avoids the need for extensions. I'll list the ones relevant with a bit about the value that will achieve your most desired behavior.

browser.urlbar.maxRichResults
This setting is only really useful if you either want to remove the autocomplete function entirely, or limit the list to a shorter length on your screen real estate, now that titles are a part of the result. Setting to 0 (zero) will just stop all autocomplete results.

browser.urlbar.matchBehavior
This setting will have the greatest impact on how your results are found, regardless of what sort of results you remove from the ones available (which will be limited in following entries). I've not seen results as I'd expect from this setting yet, but I'm not done working with it. A setting of 0 (zero) should give you a result of finding your URLs based on what you type being anywhere in the URL or page title. A setting of 1 should result in placing of what you type anywhere in the title or URL being first, followed by the URL or title beginning with what you type. A setting of 2 should result in only showing results based on what you type being at the beginning of the URL or page title.

places.frecency.unvisitedBookmarkBonus
This preference set to 0 (zero) will remove the bookmarks you haven't visited from your results.

places.frecency.bookmarkVisitBonus
This preference set to 0 (zero) will remove the bookmarks you have visited from your results.

places.frecency.unvisitedTypedBonus
This preference set to 0 (zero) will remove URLs that you haven't visited from your results, but I can't quite understand where it's getting the URLs from based on this pref's name. I don't think many of us type a URL we don't then visit. At any rate, setting this to zero should preclude some odd results you don't want from showing up.

By adjusting these values you should be able to modify the behavior of the Awful... er... 'Awesome' Bar to act more if not completely like what you were used to. You will still have the appearance issue of the page titles, but the Oldbar extension for now appears to be the only solution for that.

[Guest]

using oldbar has helped remove a bit of the clutter thanks, now to try and put the history window back in-page and remove the clutter there as well.

[Guest]

There should be a simple way to get back the *exact* behaviour of FF 2. So far, unfortunately none of the provided workarounds accomplish this.

[clarence_t]

Agreed. The awful bar is definitely a step backwards for me in terms of usability. And I know how to use the bar - this rhetoric on this forum about people "not liking the bar because they don't know how to use it" is extremely off-putting. Users know what they want, and flexibility is what we want. A simple option to completely disable it and return to the 2.0 behavior seems not unreasonable.

Great if it works for some, but users should be given the option. When has Firefox turned into Microsoft and started forcing features down users' throats?

3.0 is otherwise a good piece of software - still a few bugs to iron out but for the most part the improvements outshine the kinks.

[Guest]

Worst feature. Threat to Privacy.

How is it a threat to privacy?

[Guest]

When has Firefox turned into Microsoft and started forcing features down users' throats?

Yes, you really told them. How could that browser do such a thing?

[Guest]

Firefox team...... you've lost the plot completely with this new awful bar.

In FF 2 it would take me 3 or 4 key clicks to go most of the sites I use most; a couple of letters then down to the URL. I tried FF 3 and I ended up having to type the whole URL - a truly awful usability experience.

"Get used to it?" - you're kidding aren't you? Supply us an option or you will being to lose existing FF users faster than you gain new ones.

I've upgraded back to FF 2.0.14 already.

[Guest]

I am working on a conclusive solution to what I will term the "Awful Bar"...

How clever. Did you come up with that name yourself or did your parents help you?

[steviex]

Simple... If you do not like Firefox 3, USE FIREFOX 2 .... You can download it from HERE.. http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-older.html

You can always build and ship your OWN version of Firefox without the Location Bar Behaviour..... There is NOTHING stopping you from doing this.

Complain to Mozilla HERE http://feedback.mozilla.org/

WE are NOT Mozilla, there is NOTHING we can do about it. http://www.mozillazine.org/about/

[mrs-m]

I agree. The Awesome Bar is anything but! I want the option to turn it off.
Unvisited addon 2 will not install. Invalide File hash -261.
I really want version 2 again!

[Guest]

Complain to Mozilla HERE http://feedback.mozilla.org/

I have done so already, and I suggest others do the same.

WE are NOT Mozilla, there is NOTHING we can do about it. http://www.mozillazine.org/about/

Understood. If you google for "mozilla firefox official forum" though - congratulations, you're still top of the pile!

Don't you want to hear people venting when they've encountered such a poorly thought out feature release? Seems to me a 'top' site would be read by both the frustrated and the people who do have a say in these things, wouldn't it?

[Guest]

The extra select features did not make it into 3.0 due to performance issues, and other regressions that the devs' just plain ran out of time to fix.

Ran out of time.... I think this explains it all. The core development team was in such a hurry to get this ready for the June 17 publicity stun... I mean world record attempt.... that they didn't have time to put in something so basic and important.

I don't know what the final download count was, but I am sure that the majority of people that are not tech savvy and/or serious FF users will be put off by the aweful bar.

The only hope here is the continues efforts of people who understand how to deal with config options and extensions. There efforts to fix this flaw are greatly appreciated.

I do appreciate the suggestion to backup the profile before uninstalling..

----

I have to agree - I used the address bar as a way to quickly locate pages that I visit regularly, yet would not bookmark. I'm not in the habit of doing much typing in the addressbar and I'm sure I'm not alone.

An option would be nice.

Thanks Euchre, that's a nice summary on what needs to be done to make it tolerable.

[LoudNoise]

Don't you want to hear people venting when they've encountered such a poorly thought out feature release?

Not really. While MozillaZine is an advocacy site our main mission, especially during a release, is to help folks with problems. To that end folks have been helped in this thread. Work arounds have been offered and, if you don't like FF3, where to get 2 has been listed.

[Guest]

Just because of this new search bar I changed browser. Is it too much to ask to have and option to change location bar behaviour back to "normal" as in Firefox 2?

[vOidSenses]

Simple... If you do not like Firefox 3, USE FIREFOX 2 .... You can download it from HERE.. http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-older.html

You can always build and ship your OWN version of Firefox without the Location Bar Behaviour..... There is NOTHING stopping you from doing this.

Complain to Mozilla HERE http://feedback.mozilla.org/

WE are NOT Mozilla, there is NOTHING we can do about it. http://www.mozillazine.org/about/

honestly i don't think anyone is blaming mozillazine for the location bar, is it?
and i even gave that same feedback link already (page 4 i think), what is the purpose of mozillazine then? just to praise mozilla products? the "about" page should be a little more clear about what can we and can't we do here

now everyone should learn how to make custom builds? how about extensions? should we learn how to make them too? that would solve the problem i guess... it's that same attitude we are getting from the mozilla team with this new location bar...

personally i've been checking this thread regularly in case some solution comes up, and i don't see any harm done to mozillazine and its staff by people complaining about the new location bar