Closed Bug 1235891 Opened 8 years ago Closed 8 years ago

regression: location bar shows useless "Visit http://[typed test]/" entry

Categories

(Firefox :: Address Bar, defect)

43 Branch
defect
Not set
major

Tracking

()

RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 1235397

People

(Reporter: calestyo, Unassigned)

References

Details

(Whiteboard: [DUPEME][wontfix?])

Hi.

Apparently at least since FF43 another more invasive UI change was made, namely at the location bar, where now - instead of completing the already typed characters to the best guess (e.g. bookmark) - it doesn't complete anymore, but rather prints a top entry "Visit http://[typted text]/" in the pop-up list and one has to go down to reach any actual value.

Guys,... seriously? Do you really need to break/change the UI every few versions just for having change? There are so many security issues in FF, it's not as if there wouldn't be work to do left. o.O

I don't have a problem when you add new UI functionality (even though this particular change seems to be simply a step backwards, cause after all the idea of the completion is: that it's quickly accessible and one doesn't need n further cursor moves/etc. to get what one wants)... neither do I have a problem per se with chance (that's inherent to the development):
But I do have a problem when you make such invasive changes, make the new behaviour (which is quite likely guaranteed to break the user's experience which he has gotten used to over the last n years) the default and when you then do not even make it easily configurable (in other words: an option in the preferences).

This is not the first time that such regressions happen, I remember e.g. the time when you moved the location bar below the tabs.
Just google for it and you'll see how many people were/are annoyed by this. Then Mozilla's excuse was: well you can configure it in about:config.
Nice... about:config, of which probably far more than 50% of the options aren't documented at all, and the other half's documentation is extremely outdated.
And in the end, the option for that was dropped, forcing people to have the location bar below the tabs.

I seriously wonder which kind of development model that is,... and in other projects, take e.g. the linux kernel, it would be simply totally unacceptable to break the user side ever few versions without the strongest reason for doing so.


So please, restore the old behaviour, make it configurable via the Preferences and make it an opt-in.
If you enjoy, make a dialogue that pops up after upgrading firefox, which tells users about any new features and allow them to opt-in into each of them[0].

Chris.

[0] That would perhaps be a good idea in general, looking at the matter of fact that basically every major version of FF introduces more data spying functionality (WebRTC, healthreaport, telemetry, experiments, etc.) which are without ever telling the user enabled per default and typically rather difficult to deactivate.
See Also: → 1088218
Whiteboard: [DUPEME][wontfix?]
I do not quite see why this should be a duplicate and/or wontfix.... it worked before, it's simply a regression.

And the bug you reference describes something else, namely that the stupid line should be moved to the buttom


Please remove the wrong tagging again.
This is an expected behavior in new versions, implementd by bug 995091.

See bug 1088218 comment 3.
Status: UNCONFIRMED → RESOLVED
Closed: 8 years ago
Resolution: --- → DUPLICATE
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