1456046 - Don't search from the address bar when "Add search bar in toolbar" is selected

Status: VERIFIED WONTFIX

(Firefox :: Address Bar, enhancement)

Description

[Ambrose Li]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/59.0.3071.109 Safari/537.36
Build ID: 20180421220102

Steps to reproduce:

1. In Preferences, Search, turn off “Use the address bar for search and navigation” and turn on “Add search bar in tool bar”

2. In the navigation bar, type an incorrect URL (e.g., “ttp” for “http”, simulating a copy-and-paste error) or something that is clearly not a URL


Actual results:

3. Firefox gives search results


Expected results:

When a separate search bar is enabled the navigation bar should NEVER contact any search engine. This is a privacy leak.

Comment 1

[Gingerbread Man]

> Separate navigation bar still does searches

This is the way Firefox has always worked. It's expected behavior. Marking as enhancement request and editing the summary.

> 3. Firefox gives search results

Enter about:config into the location bar. Set keyword.enabled and browser.fixup.alternate.enabled to false. That should handle most cases. The former sends you to an internal error page when typing in "foo bar" while the latter handles "foo".

I'm not sure there's a way to get an error page in case of common typos. For example, the following loads the correct page: 
ttps://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1456047

Comment 2

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

I think we initially linked the search bar position to suggestions, but then we figured users want more flexibility, and thus we just provided the options.
Drew, do I recall correctly? If so this is probably a wontfix
Note we already provide all the tools to preserve privacy, it's just matter of configuring it.

Comment 3

[Drew Willcoxon :adw]

(In reply to Ambrose Li from comment #0)
> Expected results:
> 
> When a separate search bar is enabled the navigation bar should NEVER
> contact any search engine. This is a privacy leak.

This just isn't true, or at least it's not how it's designed to work.  Whether or not search suggestions are shown in the address bar is independent of whether the separate search bar is shown.  There's a separate checkbox lower down in the preferences, "Show search suggestions in address bar results."  That's the toggle you want.

However, I can see how you might think that unsetting the "Use the address bar for search and navigation" radio button in favor of the "Add search bar" radio button would imply that search suggestions would not be shown in the address bar.  "Use the address bar for search and navigation" is poor wording because even when it's unset, you can still use the address bar for search and navigation -- in fact the address bar's behavior vis-a-vis "search and navigation" doesn't change at all.

Verdi, any thoughts on this?  I think we have a few options:

(1) Don't do anything (and mark this bug invalid)

(2) Simply reword "Use the address bar for search and navigation"

(3) Rethink this UI, maybe so that "Use the address bar for search and navigation" and "Show search suggestions in address bar results" are not different options

Comment 4

[Ambrose Li]

I have just verified that unchecking “Show search suggestions in address bar results” has no observable effects. A non-URL input (e.g., “abcd”) still triggered a Google search.

Comment 5

[Ambrose Li]

And I’m really not okay that this will be marked invalid or wontfix. A separate search bar is a promise that anything that’s not typed in the search bar is not searched. I have been using Firefox for a long time and I know searching in the address bar was NOT “the way Firefox has always worked”.

Comment 6

[Drew Willcoxon :adw]

Are you talking about the very first result that's automatically highlighted when the popup opens?  The one that says, "abcd -- Search with Google".  That's only telling you what will happen when you select that result.  You'll do a Google search.  It's not actually sending anything to Google until you select it.

Other than that, search suggestions in the address bar are definitely disabled by unchecking that checkbox.  If you're really not seeing that, something is very wrong.

Comment 7

[Ambrose Li]

I’m talking about typing “abcd” and hitting enter. That’s how you use an address bar.

Comment 8

[Drew Willcoxon :adw]

You're not describing bugs.  The things you mention are by design.  We're not going to change them, sorry.  The only question here is the one I raised in my earlier comment about the radio button wording.

Comment 9

[Ambrose Li]

Just confirmed on 57.0.4 (Win8.1) that even completely disabling search suggestions has no effect.

The initial report (erroneously automatically marked as for Win10) is for Nightly (61.0a1) build 2018-04-21 on Ubuntu 16.04.

Comment 10

[Ambrose Li]

You are saying options that have absolutely no effects at all are not bugs?

Comment 11

[Ambrose Li]

If the address bar always does searches then the option to add a separate search bar should be nuked. You are misleading people.

Comment 12

[Ambrose Li]

I have tested setting keyword.enabled and browser.fixup.alternate.enabled to false. My observations (I’m sure you will disagree since you don’t consider misleading the user to be a bug):

1. keyword.enabled = false produces behaviour consistent with a (pre-Safari) separate address+search bar design. This option needs to be exposed in the standard search options screen. 

2. browser.fixup.alternate.enabled = false reduces UI noise, but keeping it true does not seem to prevent correct address-only behaviour on the address bar.

Comment 13

[Gingerbread Man]

(In reply to Marco Bonardo [::mak] (Away 23 Apr - 1 May) from comment #2)
> I think we initially linked the search bar position to suggestions
(In reply to Drew Willcoxon :adw from comment #3)
> Whether or not search suggestions are shown in the address bar

This isn't about search suggestions. Based on comment 12, it seems to be basically request setting keyword.enabled = false when the search bar is shown. It's bug 517736 with an added condition.

STR:
1. Focus the location bar.
2. Type in gingerbread man
3. Press the Enter key or click the Go button.

Actual results:
Firefox submits the text as a search query.

Expected results:
A Firefox error message saying the address isn't valid or something of the sort.

Comment 14

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

yes, it's now clear the request is relative to keyword.enabled, but I still see a loose connection the position of the search bar, indeed we always defaulted that option to true, even when we had the search bar on the toolbar by default.
And I don't think we are going to expose that in a UI option, it has lots of subtle bugs and would make the prefs even less clear.
Maybe mverdi has ideas to improve the situation overall, otherwise I still think this will be a wontfix.

Comment 15

[Ambrose Li]

This is not directly related to keyword.enabled (an option I didn’t even know existed). It’s about user perceptions of what the address bar should do when additional search bar exists (or, equivalently, the point of having an additional search bar). keyword.enabled being hidden away in about:config is an additional problem that I wasn’t aware of.

A user who wants to stop their typed addresses from going to Google doesn’t know they need to go to about:config and set keyword.enabled to false. All they can see is there’s an option to have a separate search box and there’s an option to stop “search suggestions” in the address bar. From a user’s POV searching a mistyped address is a search suggestion.

Comment 16

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

(In reply to Ambrose Li from comment #15)
> This is not directly related to keyword.enabled (an option I didn’t even
> know existed). It’s about user perceptions of what the address bar should do
> when additional search bar exists

The same thing it always did from when Firefox was created.

> (or, equivalently, the point of having an
> additional search bar).

Users have different use-cases for that, some do for privacy (search suggestions only on actual searches), others do to have 2 search bars (workflow), others also use it to park text (no kidding).

> A user who wants to stop their typed addresses from going to Google doesn’t
> know they need to go to about:config and set keyword.enabled to false.

This is where we're disagreeing. Typing text with suggestions disabled (exposed in prefs) doesn't do anything, no privacy concern. CONFIRMING that text with ENTER or GO sends it to the search engine, and that's clearly indicated both by the placeholder text and by the first entry in the Address Bar popup. So it's not a surprise.
keyword.enabled is just an old/legacy options for very conservative users who don't want to even risk sending any text to a search engine.

Could we make things clearer? maybe, that's why there's a needinfo open yet.

Comment 17

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

and to further clarify why keyword.enabled is not exposes as a UI pref, it's because it's a footgun. If a user enables it (by will or mistake), and then forgets, typing words in the address bar will give him a totally useless NOT FOUND page. HE may even switch to another "more useful" browser, just for that.
We tend to avoid exposing footguns in the preferences UI.

Comment 18

[Ambrose Li]

Have you guys actually tested any of your assumptions? I park text in the address bar myself. No surprise there.

Many people have privacy concerns. Many working in the language sectors (especially translation) don’t want anything searched. Are you saying you are ignoring them too? Is this now a Firefox policy to ignore users?

Comment 19

[Drew Willcoxon :adw]

(In reply to Gingerbread Man from comment #13)
> (In reply to Marco Bonardo [::mak] (Away 23 Apr - 1 May) from comment #2)
> > I think we initially linked the search bar position to suggestions
> (In reply to Drew Willcoxon :adw from comment #3)
> > Whether or not search suggestions are shown in the address bar
> 
> This isn't about search suggestions. Based on comment 12, it seems to be
> basically request setting keyword.enabled = false when the search bar is
> shown. It's bug 517736 with an added condition.

I see.  It wasn't at all clear from comment 0 that the STR included hitting the return key or otherwise actually performing a search.  I agree with Marco, this is wontfix, and my question for Verdi isn't actually related to this at all, so I'll clear the needinfo.

Comment 20

[Ambrose Li]

So you haven’t answered my question. Is it now an official Firefox policy to ignore users?

Comment 21

[Verdi [:verdi] Best to slack me]

(In reply to Ambrose Li from comment #12)
> 1. keyword.enabled = false produces behaviour consistent with a (pre-Safari)
> separate address+search bar design. This option needs to be exposed in the
> standard search options screen. 

If I understand you correctly, when there is a separate search bar, you expect that the address bar only navigates to typed in urls or allows you to select from history. No searching the web should be done at all. 

(In reply to Ambrose Li from comment #15) 
> From a user’s POV
> searching a mistyped address is a search suggestion.

And as you say above, performing a search for htpp://mozilla.org instead of giving you an error is a kind of search suggestion.

(In reply to Ambrose Li from comment #5)
> I have been using Firefox for a long time and I
> know searching in the address bar was NOT “the way Firefox has always
> worked”.

To the best of my knowledge, in the past (Firefox 1 - 3.6), we used to try to make a guess as to what website you intended to type into the address bar and take you to it automatically. So, for example, if you'd typed only "wikipedia" (or even "wikkipedia" or "wiki pedia") in the address bar and then hit enter, we'd take you directly to https://wikipedia.org. But if you typed in "3ikipedia" by accident, we'd do a Google search for "3ikipedia". Given that, it's quite possible that it seemed like searches were never performed from the address bar.

I believe this behavior was changed to what we do currently with the release of Firefox 4 back in 2011. 

(In reply to Ambrose Li from comment #5)
> A separate search bar is a promise that anything that’s not typed in the
> search bar is not searched. 

I can see your point but that's not how Firefox or other browsers work. We made this clearer by adding "Search or enter address" as the default text in the address bar back in Firefox 21 (2015).

It's not our intention that we should do what the bug title, "Don't search from the address bar when "Add search bar in toolbar" is selected" suggests so it's appropriate to wontfix this bug as written. 

But as others point out, I can see how the design of the preferences can give you the impression that it should work that way and so I'd be in favor of working on that. I'll file a bug when I have a proposal.