1067515 - Allow add-ons to provide answers in the Address Bar

Status: REOPENED

(Firefox :: Address Bar, enhancement, P5)

Description

[Tim Nguyen :ntim]

I'd be nice to be able to get something similar to [0] for the awesomebar. I remember that Yahoo Axis provided something like this, unfortunatly, it's discontinued.
Open APIs that could be used :
- DuckDuckGo instant answers API [1] (also made a JS library that allows you to use it easily : [2])
- OpenWeatherMap [3]
- Freebase (though it's by Google) [4]
- Wikipedia API itself

[0] : http://www.omgchrome.com/google-chrome-for-android-answers-flag/
[1] : https://duckduckgo.com/api
[2] : https://github.com/nt1m/InfoCards.js
[3] : http://openweathermap.org/
[4] : https://developers.google.com/freebase/

Comment 1

[Matthew N. [:MattN]]

Bryan, is this something we would consider in the next six months (and therefor backlog+)?

http://www.androidpolice.com/2014/09/15/tip-chrome-beta-answers-in-suggest-flag-enables-answers-to-simple-questions-right-in-the-omnibar/

Comment 2

[Bryan Clark (DevTools PM) [:clarkbw]]

(In reply to Matthew N. [:MattN] from comment #1)
> Bryan, is this something we would consider in the next six months (and
> therefor backlog+)?
> 
> http://www.androidpolice.com/2014/09/15/tip-chrome-beta-answers-in-suggest-
> flag-enables-answers-to-simple-questions-right-in-the-omnibar/

I think it's worth looking at as part of our search improvements

Comment 3

[BMO Automation]

Per policy at https://wiki.mozilla.org/Bug_Triage/Projects/Bug_Handling/Bug_Husbandry#Inactive_Bugs. If this bug is not an enhancement request or a bug not present in a supported release of Firefox, then it may be reopened.

Comment 4

[Marco Bonardo [:mak] (Away 10-21 August)]

We're get closer to this, but it's still unclear how. not a priority until we re-architecture the address bar.

Comment 5

[Marco Bonardo [:mak] (Away 10-21 August)]

So, the team is actively investigating these possibilities, either as standalone or with partners, things like weather, or unit conversion and so on...

Those are handled case by case, starting from a spec and building it. I don't think a generic bug is necessary, it would be better to file bugs for specific use-cases.
Though long term it would be nice if add-ons could provide those, then people could just play with it and make add-ons. I think it's worth transforming this bug into that request.