1520911 - Allow visiting search home page with @shortcut

Status: NEW

(Firefox :: Address Bar, defect, P3)

Description

[Ed Lee :Mardak]

I see bug 1507568 changed the behavior to prevent accidentally searching with no query when selecting from the list and there was a question/clarification there bug 1507568 comment 2 about the keyboard "return" behavior.

tspurway suggests that it could seem like a functionality regression of being able to jump to the web site if that's what the user is trying to do. (I suppose @amazon could be a convenient shortcut to just browse the home page.)

Maybe to differentiate the behaviors is one is when the popup is open with multiple search options vs the user has typed out the whole keyword and pressed enter so the popup only has the one entry for "Search with Amazon.com" ??

E.g., user types "@a<return>" fills in "@amazon " and a second return would visit the page ?

Comment 1

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

I find it annoying indeed, I'd like the suggested behavior.

Comment 2

[Verdi [:verdi] Best to slack me]

All search functions prevent you from searching for nothing. I don't believe the solution is to make a search feature that allows you to search for nothing. The described behavior is annoying because we've broken people's expectations of what a top site should do (i.e. navigate directly). Hitting enter twice to navigate is also annoying and can seem like a functionality regression. This is backed up by the usability test we did on the feature. I believe the solution is to address this mismatch of expectations in regards to mixing search and navigation in the top sites section.

Comment 3

[Ed Lee :Mardak]

This was filed independent of top sites search. Users can type in these aliases directly into the address bar