2006881 - Allow removing local shortcuts

Status: NEW

(Firefox :: Address Bar, enhancement, P5)

Description

[aoia7rz7l]

Apparently Chrome now also includes @bookmarks/@history/@tabs "site search shortcuts" by default, and Chrome users can "deactivate" them individually in chrome://settings/searchEngines. When deactivated these default shortcuts do not show up as suggestions when users type @ in the address bar.

The same cannot be achieved in Firefox 140.6.0esr and Nightly 148.0a1 (2025-12-17) BuildID 20251217214341.

STR:

1. Uncheck some of the default search engines in the "Search Shortcuts" section inabout:preferences#search.
2. Click on the Unified Search Button in the address bar to confirm that the unchecked search engines are no longer shown in the dropdown.
3. Type @ in the address bar and confirm that unchecked search engines remained available.
4. In the "Search Shortcuts" section inabout:preferences#search, click on some of the default search engines and "Remove" them.
5. Type @ in the address bar to confirm that the removed search engines are no longer suggested.
6. Uncheck some of the local search shortcuts (i.e. @bookmarks/@history/@tabs/@actions) in the "Search Shortcuts" section in about:preferences#search.
7. Click on the Unified Search Button to confirm that the unchecked local search shortcuts are no longer shown in the dropdown.
8. Type @ in the address bar and confirm that unchecked local search shortcuts remained available.
9. In the "Search Shortcuts" section inabout:preferences#search, click on some of the local search shortcuts.

Expected Behavior:

Users can click on the "Remove" button to disable local search shortcuts and their search restrict keywords.

Actual Behavior:

The "Remove" button is greyed out when a local search shortcut is selected, and users are unable to disable its search restrict keyword(s) (unlike Chrome).

I appreciate that there are probably other users who would prefer Firefox's current behavior, but it would be nice if users can also disable these search restrict keywords if they wanted to (gated behind a pref if necessary?).

Comment 1

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco]]

The Bugbug bot thinks this bug should belong to the 'Firefox::Address Bar' component, and is moving the bug to that component. Please correct in case you think the bot is wrong.

Comment 2

[Moritz Beier [:mbeier]]

We are currently working on a settings redesign and will consider this there

Comment 3

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

I appreciate that there are probably other users who would prefer Firefox's current behavior, but it would be nice if users can also disable these search restrict keywords if they wanted to (gated behind a pref if necessary?).

It would be interesting to know why you wish to have the requested behaviour. Is there a particular issue that is cause by this?

At the moment we've decided not to prioritise this, but we may revisit in future.