100078 - [RFE] Make Search Sidebar Engine Selection change default

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(SeaMonkey :: Search, enhancement, P1)

Description

[Todd Pringle]

Currently, changing the search engine in the sidebar dropdown does not affect
the user's default search engine setting.  Users can get into a confusing state
where they see one search engine in the URL dropdown and another in the Search
Sidebar tab.  

We should make the selection change in the sidebar affect the default engine as
well.  We could possibly ask the user when they do this i.e. "Would you like to
set {Search engine x} as your default search engine," with a checkbox for always
ask me (default unchecked?).  Or we could probably live without the dialog and
just do it - I think most users probably expect this behavior.  Need some UE input.

Comment 1

[matt]

Todd,

Two things I worry about doing this change.  The first is that I always saw the 
search entry points as your main search engine much like retail search. And 
search sidebar tab is like wholesale search where I can choose from from many 
different search engines.  

If the user is changing their search engine in the tab often then the search 
button and drop down will change often.  Usibility for buttons and the drop 
down people expect to change it once and then it not to change again.  If we 
implement this I would strongly suggest we have a check mark as you suggested.

Also, changing this means that more traffic is going to be drivin to other 
sites rather then the default site that the product ships with.  Do we want 
this behavior?  Maybe that is a netscape only issue.

Comment 2

[Myron Rosmarin]

My inclination is to agree with Matt. I'm not certain that the user will
appreciate the connection between a change in the sidebar and modified behavior
elsewhere in the browser.  I agree that this decision calls for some testing.

Comment 3

[Todd Pringle]

German, what are your thoughts here?  Matt and Myron have good points.  While I
agree that the user may not appreciate the change in the sidebar has on other
parts of the application, I think they will appreciate (or rather not
appreciate) the fact that when they search (after changing the sidebar engine)
from the sidebar the results are different then when they search from the URL
bar.  This is just confusing.  Some good UE here would go a long way towards
educating users about what they're doing.  As would some usability data obviously.

Comment 4

[Samir Gehani]

My vote: I think the alert originally mentioned by Todd with the checkbox will
suffice in getting across the idea to the user.  We will need to decide on
reasonable defaults and clear, concise, and comprehensible verbiage.

Comment 5

[Samir Gehani]

Plan on landing early in mozilla0.9.7.

Comment 6

[Samir Gehani]

Attachment: Patch to ask user if they want to change their default engine.

Comment 7

[Samir Gehani]

morse, please r.
alecf, please sr.

Thanks.

Comment 8

[Stephen P. Morse]

Comment on attachment 56966 [details] [diff] [review]
Patch to ask user if they want to change their default engine.

r=morse

Comment 9

[Todd Pringle]

Adding Jatin - can you review the wording on this new dialog?  Thanks.

Comment 10

[Alec Flett]

Comment on attachment 56966 [details] [diff] [review]
Patch to ask user if they want to change their default engine.

no... you should be using the string bundle's formatStringFromName and not
doing regexp substitution

Comment 11

[Samir Gehani]

Attachment: Patch rev 2 incorporating formatStringFromName() usage.

Comment 12

[Samir Gehani]

Attachment: Patch rev 3 (same as rev 2 but without obsolete commented lines).

morse, please r.
alecf, please sr.

Comment 13

[Stephen P. Morse]

Comment on attachment 59565 [details] [diff] [review]
Patch rev 3 (same as rev 2 but without obsolete commented lines).

r=morse

Comment 14

[Alec Flett]

Comment on attachment 59565 [details] [diff] [review]
Patch rev 3 (same as rev 2 but without obsolete commented lines).

awesome. sr=alecf

Comment 15

[Samir Gehani]

Checked in.

Comment 16

[sairuh (rarely reading bugmail)]

mass-verifying claudius' Fixed bugs which haven't changed since 2001.12.31.

if you think this particular bug is not fixed, please make sure of the following
before reopening:

a. retest with a *recent* trunk build.
b. query bugzilla to see if there's an existing, open bug (new, reopened,
assigned) that covers your issue.
c. if this does need to be reopened, make sure there are specific steps to
reproduce (unless already provided and up-to-date).

thanks!

[set your search string in mail to "AmbassadorKoshNaranek" to filter out these
messages.]