1456367 - Incorrect prompt “Search or enter address” when search is turned off

Status: NEW

(Firefox :: Address Bar, defect, P5)

Description

[Ambrose Li]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:61.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/61.0
Build ID: 20180419100148

Steps to reproduce:

1. Turn off search in address box (i.e., set keyword.enabled to false)

2. Create a new tab or window and look at the address bar


Actual results:

3. The address bar prompts “Search or enter address” even though search has been turned off


Expected results:

The address bar should only prompt “Enter address”

Comment 1

[Gingerbread Man]

The placeholder text is correct, given that enabling the search bar doesn't disable searching from the address bar, as you know from bug 1456046.

Comment 2

[Ambrose Li]

As I mentioned in comment 12, keyword.enabled = false actually disables search. That’s why I indicated I have disabled keyword.enabled. The placeholder text is incorrect.

Please read the thread you mentioned and stop calling UX issues irrelevant, thank you very much.

Comment 3

[Ambrose Li]

You didn’t even read this bug. I never mentioned creating a search bar.

Comment 4

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

keyword.enabled is considered an advanced/hidden setting and as such it may have bugs (warranty voided on about:config access means something).
Fwiw, I suspect this may be a dupe of some old bug.

Comment 5

[Ambrose Li]

I’m not denying it’s a hidden config. That doesn’t make it a non-bug.

Comment 6

[Mkll]

If you are enabling a hidden conflict - you should expect to run into issues.

Comment 7

[Mkll]

Whoops, typo there - config not conflict.

Comment 8

[Ambrose Li]

Also, if “voiding the warranty” means you’re going to ignore bug reports then say so, in plain English. Don’t use misleading language like “voiding the warranty”.

Comment 9

[Ambrose Li]

The MPL explicitly states that there is no warranty. “Voiding the warranty” is not just vague language; it’s actually meaningless.

Comment 10

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

This was once fixed as bug 1179153 but may have re-regressed.

Comment 11

[Gingerbread Man]

(In reply to Asa Dotzler [:asa] from comment #10)
> This was once fixed as bug 1179153 but may have re-regressed.

That refers to the first entry in the address bar drop-down, not the placeholder text in the address bar itself.
With keyword.enabled = false, typing in foobar shows "[globe icon] http://foobar/ — Visit"
With keyword.enabled = true, typing in foobar shows "[magnifying glass icon] foobar — Search with DuckDuckGo (SSL)*"
* your default search engine

Comment 12

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

yep, this is about the placeholder text inside the input field.

Comment 14

[[e-mail]]

It wasn't exactly incorrect for the Location Bar to say "Search or enter address" when web searching is disabled, because the bar also searches through your local library (browsing history, bookmarks, tags, and maybe other locally-stored things as well). So, "search" could mean "search the web" as well as "search your library".

But now, the placeholder text says "Search with <search engine> or enter address" even when "type & go" web searching is disabled by keyword.enabled=false, which is definitely misleading, since a web search won't actually be performed. (By "type & go", I mean typing in the location bar and pressing Enter, instead of using a drop-down suggestion.)

Also, to be extra precise, the placeholder text could also remove any mention of "search" if about:config settings disable search results from the library.

Ideas:
-"Search with <search engine> or enter address": web searching on
-"Search or enter address": web searching off, library searching on
-"Enter address": web searching off, library searching off

...or would all of that just complicate the meaning of the word "search" in the context of Firefox's UX? Whatever is decided, the placeholder text should describe/warn about what will happen as you are typing something into the Location Bar (like how typing triggers web searches when web search suggestions are enabled), and what can happen when you "type & go" (like being sent to web search results when keyword.enabled is true, or visiting a library item because of your text having been pre-filled with it).

For the record, Location Bar *suggestions* in the drop-down are all very transparent about what they do. This discussion only needs to be concerned with the placeholder text seen before interacting with the bar at all.

PS: For what it's worth, a "type & go" will *not* send you to web search results if keyword.enabled is false, *even if* you have enabled web search drop-down suggestions from the Location Bar. Personally I think that's really nifty because it means that both of those preferences are kept separate, as opposed to one preference silently controlling the other.

Comment 16

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

I think we could remove the "with <Engine>" part, at least.

Comment 17

[Florencia Di Ciocco, NI to vbalducci]

Hi, I think that this bug is no longer valid in the face of the latest changes on the browser. If I'm mistaken, please reopen it.
Regards, Flor.

Comment 18

[lvm]

Firefox 109 has a configuration option - not a hidden and undocumented about:config key, but master configuration option "Add search bar in toolbar" in about:preferences#search, which creates a separate window for searching and disables search in the address field, and yet the misleading 'search with...' prompt in address field is still there.