338494 - Center gray "XXX Search" text in search bar

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox :: Search, defect)

Description

[Bryan]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1a2) Gecko/20060518 BonEcho/2.0a2
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1a2) Gecko/20060518 BonEcho/2.0a2

Centering the gray "XXX Search" looks better IMO.  Also I would suggest as part of this bug that the the wording be flipped to say "Search XXX" instead.  I realize that some "Search XXX XXX XXX" could cause part of the search engine name to be hidden due to the length of the search engine name and the small size of the search bar but I would also suggest as part of this bug that the default min. size of the search bar be increased (but still keep the flex) to ensure that the gray text is not cut off while still being centered.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
N/A
Actual Results:  
[G Google Search            ]

Expected Results:  
[G]      Search Google      ]

IMO this would be great UI polish and just looks good and if the gray text was flipped then it would align with the tool tips text which are currently inconsistent (they already say "Search XXX" instead of "XXX Search").

Comment 1

[Mike Beltzner [:beltzner, not reading bugmail]]

The wording isn't final atm (see bug 337106) and I don't really see the value in centering the text. Generally speaking, centered text is weak UI design, and looks awkward and calls attention to itself. Pretty sure we don't want that!

Comment 2

[Bryan]

(In reply to comment #1)
> The wording isn't final atm (see bug 337106) and I don't really see the value
> in centering the text. Generally speaking, centered text is weak UI design, and
> looks awkward and calls attention to itself. Pretty sure we don't want that!

Well IMO it currently looks bad but we can agree to disagree.  Also, is bug 337106 going to fix the inconsistency in the gray text "XXX Search" and the tooltip which says "Search XXX".  There have been quite a few inconsistencies like this introduced lately and quite frankly it just looks unprofessional.

The current design of the search box calls enough attention to itself already without the text being centered.  The "disabled" state appearance of the new search icon and drop down just looks bad.

~B

Comment 3

[Pam Greene]

The grey search icon in winstripe is not an intentional replacement.  It would already have been switched back to the previous icon (see bug 337131) if it weren't likely to have something completely new when the rest of the theme is refreshed anyway.