1490913 - one-click way to reach the URL from the <SearchForm> tag

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox :: Search, enhancement, P5)

Description

[Paul Wise]

When there is no text in the search field I would like a one-click mechanism reach the URL from the <SearchForm> tag (or post an empty search for search engines with no <SearchForm>). 

I suggest that when the field is empty, the logo image of the search engine be present on the right side of the search input field, where the arrow normally is when the field is not empty. When the field is not empty, the logo would turn into the arrow. Pressing the logo would load the <SearchForm> URL if one is present for the current search engine or post an empty search for the others.

I'm trying to switch away from an XUL plugin that allows multiple search engines in the toolbars and one of the features it has is logos that go to the default URL when pressed and the input field is empty.

Related bugs:

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1489837
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1488050
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=648398

Comment 1

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

Generally we are moving away from having empty fields go to an engine's search form, as there doesn't appear to be a good user benefit when they could type their search in the field and go to the results directly.

Additionally, there are already other ways that the user can go to a search form directly, e.g. by adding a bookmark on the bookmark toolbar.

Hence, I don't see us changing anything here, nor accepting a patch for it.

Comment 2

[Paul Wise]

Thats a shame, since it means several situations are not supported:

• when the <SearchForm> URL is a different page to prefilled search URLs
• when the search form has additional fields which are not shown in the browser UI
• when the search form has fields that can't be filled in after doing a search

The bookmark thing is a suboptimal workaround at best, since the two associated actions are then entirely separated.