223950 - Provide UI for configuring/disabling keyword.URL functionality

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox :: Settings UI, enhancement)

Description

[James Ascroft-Leigh]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.5) Gecko/20031007 Firebird/0.7
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.5) Gecko/20031007 Firebird/0.7

A competing browser that I will not mention by name, the last time I used it,
had an annoying default feature.  Where that browser could not contact the uri
entered or, if the uri is not valid, it will transmit the uri to the web portal
branch of the browser provider and perform a web search.  I am informed that
this feature can be deactivated in the advanced preferences dialogue pane for
this browser.

I was unhappy when switching from Mozilla Seamonkey to Mozilla Firebird that the
search from location bar feature had been replaced.  Instead of having the
choice between different engines and being directed to the search results page I
am forced to use google and sent to the first result page (I didn't realise
exactly what it was doing at first).  The more worrying 'features' are that,
unlike SeaMonkey, you do not explitly perform the search and I could not find a
way to turn this off.

What I think Firebird should do differently as soon as possible:
  - Give the user the option to disable this feature from the standard
preferences dialogue box (Tools -> Options...)
  - Tell the user, when they enter their first malformed URL, what will happen
and maybe give them a box with buttons labelled: [Submit to Google] [Cancel
Search] [Disable Feature]

What Firebird might do eventually:
  - Allow the user to configure an arbitary "Quick Search" bookmark as the
target for the malformed URL searches.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:





The automatic search from the location bar can be reconfigured using the
preferential extension.  It can be disabled [pref("keyword.enabled", ...)] or
have the search URL changed [pref("keyword.URL", ...)].

Comment 1

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

Note that those preferences are available via about:config, no extension needed,
unless you really need UI for it.

Updating summary and severity to what this really is, namely a bug asking for UI
for an existing preference.

Offtopic, calling something "spyware" is both inflammatory and untrue.  If you
mistype a URL or try a search, it uses the I'm Feeling Lucky search for Google,
which is debatable, but certainly not spyware or malicious.

Comment 2

[cjdunn]

This isn't just about mistyped urls. Before Firebird, typing in "dictionary"
brought me to http://www.dictionary.com. It was the good ole www.<word>.com
wrapper that I knew and loved that the "Redmond Browser" never offered. With
Firebird typing the word in always delivers me to http://www.m-w.com/home.htm.

So now I have unlearn (good) old habits and add .com or look to see if it's in
the history which breaks my "flow" human interface-wise.

Comment 3

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

if you want <word> to resolve to www.<word>.com, use Ctrl-Enter instead of just 
Enter, that's part of the UI decision.  Typing a word into the URL bar is more 
like fishing for the right site (remembering how NS 4.x would 
try .com, .net, .org for that type of entry), and a web search makes more sense 
for that type of usage.  Either change the pref to use the old Mozilla 
behaviour, or use the keyboard shortcut which does what you're looking for.

Comment 4

[Vi Vovan]

I vote for this bug! I would like an obvious user interface option to disable
this (perhaps under preferences=>privacy!). Doing bug searches there were about
20+ bugs for things like http://http://www.cnn.com going to microsoft.com, and
internal server names or ports like http://firewall:8080 being resolved to
someone's website, because of the 'I'm feeling lucky' keyword search on anything
that doesn't resolve.

The way the keyword search works is unexpected. A user might think their browser
was hijacked by spyware and sending them to another site. Not to be a
tinfoil-hatter, but this is also giving URL information to Google that users may
not want anyone to have (like username:password@firewall:8080). Google has been
altruistic, but with advertising-based companies going the way of Claria and
180solutions and others, we have to wonder if this is something that you want
permanently in a browser people will be using for a LONG time (re: Netscape
4.72) when Google's policies towards user privacy may change. And maybe we just
need to see that our server is down or see if our hosts file or DNS entry works
and not see another page. 

I would also put in a 'URL NOT FOUND: Searching keyword using Google in 2
seconds' warning when the redirection does happen.

Comment 5

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

sorry for bugspam, long-overdue mass reassign of ancient QA contact bugs,
filter on "beltznerLovesGoats" to get rid of this mass change

Comment 7

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

keyword.enabled exists as a pref, I don't think there's enough user demand for exposing this in the UI.