1380538 - Clear the selected one-off search button when typing

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Firefox :: Address Bar, defect, P3)

Description

[Alex]

I've run into this issue a few times where when I type a URL into the address bar and hit enter, I instead end up performing a search for the entered URL. I found out what was happening and the steps to reproduce it.

STR

1. Start typing a URL into the location bar
2. Press the up arrow key, the highlight should move to the options gear at the bottom of the drop down
3. Press the up arrow a few more times to highlight a search engine
4. Resume typing the URL

At this point the search engine and the "Visit" option in the dropdown should both be highlighted, but hitting enter will perform the search option instead of the visit option.

I can see this on OS X, not sure about Windows since I can't get a Nightly build to work on my PC.

Comment 1

[Alice0775 White]

reproduced on Windows10.

Comment 2

[Panos Astithas (he/him) [:past] (please ni?)]

The location bar is not "stuck", in the sense of continuing to do searches instead of visits in subsequent navigations. But there definitely exists some confusion in the UI from the fact that we have both a search engine selected and the autofill suggests a visit. Which one should win? Bug 1370351 is also about the same core issue.

Drew, was this edge case considered in bug 1295458 or should we ask Stephen?

Comment 3

[Marco Bonardo [:mak] (Away Apr 25 - May 5)]

It sounds like a plain bug, we should never end up with a double selection.

Comment 4

[Drew Willcoxon :adw]

I think Marco is right that we shouldn't end up with a double selection, regardless of anything else.  (The only time that should be OK is for the "advanced" Alt+Up/Down usage.)  That was one of the big points of bug 1295458.  Which means we should clear the one-off selection (indeed both selections, the one-off and the result) when you start typing again.

But, that would mean you can't select a one-off and then modify your search query before you hit the return key (you notice a typo for example) without the one-off becoming unselected.  Which might be annoying.  I don't think Stephen and I considered that case -- or maybe we did but decided that's an OK price for no double selection, or decided to punt.  (Maybe we could keep the one-off selection as long as the heuristic result is a search, i.e., the urlbar thinks you're performing a search.)

A separate issue is what to do when a URL is selected and then you hit a one-off.  My idea was to disable the one-offs when a URL is selected, and Stephen was open to that, if I remember right, but of course that hasn't been implemented yet.

Comment 5

[Drew Willcoxon :adw]

Stephen, any thoughts on this bug?  I tried to summarize it in comment 4.

Comment 6

[Stephen Horlander [:shorlander]]

(In reply to Drew Willcoxon :adw from comment #4)
> I think Marco is right that we shouldn't end up with a double selection,
> regardless of anything else.  (The only time that should be OK is for the
> "advanced" Alt+Up/Down usage.)  That was one of the big points of bug
> 1295458.  Which means we should clear the one-off selection (indeed both
> selections, the one-off and the result) when you start typing again.

I agree this would be the desired behavior.

> But, that would mean you can't select a one-off and then modify your search
> query before you hit the return key (you notice a typo for example) without
> the one-off becoming unselected.  Which might be annoying.  I don't think
> Stephen and I considered that case -- or maybe we did but decided that's an
> OK price for no double selection, or decided to punt.  (Maybe we could keep
> the one-off selection as long as the heuristic result is a search, i.e., the
> urlbar thinks you're performing a search.)

I think it's the price for no double selection. This trade-off falls into the bigger issue of the one-offs not being sticky. But the design philosophy for the one-offs is that they are occasional things you use for a specific use-case: e.g. you want to shop for shoes on Amazon directly but in most cases you want to funnel your searches through a general purpose search engine.

> A separate issue is what to do when a URL is selected and then you hit a
> one-off.  My idea was to disable the one-offs when a URL is selected, and
> Stephen was open to that, if I remember right, but of course that hasn't
> been implemented yet.

I don't really see this as a problem, and in fact there might be a reason you want to search for a URL as a string and not go there directly. e.g. to search for whether other people think a site is legitimate.

Comment 7

[Drew Willcoxon :adw]

Thanks Stephen.  I'll morph this bug to be specifically about clearing the one-off selection when you type.  I thought there might have been a bug about that already but I didn't find anything.  Not sure whether this should be P2 or P3.  Seems important, but Panos considers this an edge case in comment 2, so I'll mark it as P3.  Please change if anyone disagrees.

Comment 8

[Marco Bonardo [:mak] (Away Apr 25 - May 5)]

This doesn't apply as-is to search mode one-off buttons.