Closed Bug 434267 Opened 16 years ago Closed 15 years ago

Awesome bar needs to be an option.

Categories

(Firefox :: Address Bar, defect)

Product:
Firefox
Component:
Address Bar
Type:
defect
Priority:
Not set
Severity:
major

Tracking

()

Status:
VERIFIED WONTFIX

People

(Reporter: c4sucks, Unassigned)

References

Details

Attachments

(1 file)

Screenshot of Shiretoko (3.1) candidate
89.33 KB, image/png
Details 
User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9) Gecko/2008051206 Firefox/3.0
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9) Gecko/2008051206 Firefox/3.0

Please make the not so AwesomeBar an option. Just add the option to the options area. Something like "Use Awesome Bar", with a place to check to use it. or maybe "Use old style URL bar" with the check box.
The AwesomeBar is extremely annoying. Even with oldbar installed.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.
2.
3.
OS: Windows Vista → All
Hardware: PC → All
set browser.urlbar.maxRichResults to 0 in about:config
Wholeheartedly agree.  New "functionality" is redundant with other existing functionality and devalues the previous, non-redundant functionality.  In other words, your giving us another of doing somethings we could already do, and making the only way of doing another thing worthless.  I'm sure it looks impressive on a feature list, but in practice it's annoying.
(In reply to comment #1)
> set browser.urlbar.maxRichResults to 0 in about:config
> 

That doesn't completely get rid of it. It helps, but isn't a complete fix.
What's annoying about it?  If there's something specific that's annoying, we might be able to add a pref or just fix it, but we can't add a pref to make everything (appearance, algorithm, etc) act like Firefox 2.
This is the only thing I don't like about 3.  I'd just like to limit the "awesome bar" to it's pre-awesome behavior, i.e., only showing what I've type into it.
I really dislike the url bar area with it dropping down & offing me anything other than what I'm typing. I don't want to start typing an address & have it give me a bunch of things I don't want to go to. I would type f & it would offer me a site with no f in it. I would prefer an option to completely remove the url bar dropping down & offering anything.

I found a couple things I could tweak in about:config that made it the way I like it, but for those that don't know about the config area, an option in the options area to turn it off would be great.
Basically this is what I ended up doing in about:config. This made it work like what I want.

set browser.urlbar.matchOnlyTyped to 1
set browser.urlbar.maxRichResults to 0
set browser.urlbar.search.chunkSize to 0
(In reply to comment #7)
> I meant this. Can't find a way to edit my post.
> 
> set browser.urlbar.matchOnlyTyped to true
> set browser.urlbar.maxRichResults to 0
> set browser.urlbar.search.chunkSize to 0
>
Flags: blocking-firefox3?
Comment 8 shows how to do this. Resolving WFM.
Status: UNCONFIRMED → RESOLVED
Closed: 16 years ago
Flags: blocking-firefox3? → blocking-firefox3-
Resolution: --- → WORKSFORME
I may have shown how to adjust for it, but that still doesn't give the avg user an option to check or uncheck.
The name of this was "Awesome bar needs to be an option."
Status: RESOLVED → UNCONFIRMED
Resolution: WORKSFORME → ---
Not resolved.  The above config changes turn the location bar drop-down off completely, not return it to its 2.0 behavior.
(In reply to comment #11)
> Not resolved.  The above config changes turn the location bar drop-down off
> completely, not return it to its 2.0 behavior.

Sounds like you want to file a bug for "2.0 behavior needs to be an option." A number of people agree with you, though I think it would end up being too much work for too little benefit, personally.

Original filer got what was asked for, apparently, except for the UI question. Restoring full 2.0 behavior (whatever that might consist of) seems out of scope to me.

Assuming this bug's not currently WFM, it at least ought to be confirm-able as a NEW enhancement request, whatever the final resolution, shouldn't it?

So doing.
Status: UNCONFIRMED → NEW
Ever confirmed: true
My bug report was rolled into this one (I think, maybe different one, but it was rolled somewhere).  I don't think it would be that hard.  FF  obviously stores history, bookmarks, and typed-in URLs someplace.  If those three are stored in separate places (and they must be, because they are shown separately in the UI, except in the unawesome bar), seems like all that would have to happen is to not search where the history and bookmarks are.
You might look at bug 395161 and bug 424577 if you haven't already.

Bug 395161 comment #25 points to a tryserver build if you want to try it out. Between that and the about:config changes in this bug, you might get closer to what you're looking for.
If I'm right the new search algorithm searches (1) previously entered urls, (2) visited urls and (3) bookmarks. I think most people complaining about the new url bar would be helped if you could choose which of these three categories are searched. 
And maybe add an option for a more compact display of the search results (as Oldbar does).




I would also like to see an option to choose what the awesomebar searches, and an option to change back to the old display. The new display doesn't add anything, it just takes up more space.
There is a good deal of user feedback in hendrix (and I have read every entry that has been posted to date for the RC) which indicates users would prefer a way to easily pref this feature off. I also read comments from users that stated they would not use Firefox 3 if this feature cannot easily be turned off. I think we should consider making it easier for users to do this - not all of them will be enterprising enough to hunt around and find the about:config options that need to be adjusted.
(In reply to comment #17)
> There is a good deal of user feedback in hendrix (and I have read every entry
> that has been posted to date for the RC) which indicates users would prefer a
> way to easily pref this feature off. I also read comments from users that
> stated they would not use Firefox 3 if this feature cannot easily be turned
> off. I think we should consider making it easier for users to do this - not all of them will be enterprising enough to hunt around and find the about:config
> options that need to be adjusted.
> 

Me, for example....could someone please give a quick step-by-step on how to do this?
Check out this page. There is some info about how to get rid of the not so awesomeness.
http://bbayles.googlepages.com/disable_slb.html
>Check out this page. 
all steps, okay... not the same as FF2-bar. i'm missing the bar!

i have now not bad bookmarks, but if i vist a site by typing there adress in the bar end press return, 0 entrys when i click on the arrow in the bar.

my config:
browser.urlbar.maxRichResults 12
browser.urlbar.search.chunkSize 1000
browser.urlbar.search.timeout 100
browser.urlbar.autoFill false
browser.urlbar.matchBehavior 1
browser.urlbar.filter.javascript true
browser.urlbar.doubleClickSelectsAll false

i hope, the devolper build a option to enable/disable the claccis bar

Please have an option to get the FF2 style URL bar back in the next update or sooner. 
Why hasn't this been wontfixed yet?
Well, when I set "browser.urlbar.matchBehavior" to "2" and "browser.urlbar.matchOnlyTyped" to "true", it helps. So does OldBar. Still, when I type "com" in the bar, I don't want to see all the URLs with ".com" in them, they are just noise. I want to see URLs with words like "community". If it's impossible to restore the 2.0 behaviour, please consider giving greater weight to matches that occur closer to the beginning of the string being matched.
(In reply to comment #22)
> Why hasn't this been wontfixed yet?
> 
Does wontfixed mean the Firefox team will never fix this? I'm not really up to date on the lingo in here I guess.

Please fix this ASAP. 

From what I have been reading, there was an option in the early betas to be able to use the FF2 style URL bar. Why not just put that code back in so we can have a decent URL bar again?
Severity: enhancement → major
Flags: blocking-firefox3.1?
(In reply to comment #24)
> Does wontfixed mean the Firefox team will never fix this? I'm not really up to
> date on the lingo in here I guess.
> 

Yes, that's what it means.

> Please fix this ASAP. 
> 
> From what I have been reading, there was an option in the early betas to be
> able to use the FF2 style URL bar. Why not just put that code back in so we can
> have a decent URL bar again?
> 

I too wish the code to allow users to select the old-urlbar behavior to be restored.

(In reply to comment #22)
> Why hasn't this been wontfixed yet?
> 

Why exactly would you be asking that? Do you think the user should not have options? The new Smart Location Bar, for me, isn't smart. It is very annoying. 

I would think with this being an option in the early betas, it would only take a few minutes to add back in. 

Adding it back in would make many people happy. Why would Mozilla not want to make the user happy with their product?
Wow, Clippy flashbacks.

The rest of FF3 is very good. A simple check box so I don't have to mess around with browser.urlbar.richResults would make it excellent.

Please add the option to use the FF2 URL bar in 3.1 or sooner. I've seen the added option to narrow the searches by adding in @,#,*,+ and whatever else. I do not want to have to type a bunch of extra stuff just to get the URL bar to match only the URL's that are being typed. Please just gives us an option to use the FF2 URL bar in FF3.
Flags: in-testsuite?
Flags: in-litmus?
Lets change the perspective a bit for a moment:

Traditionally FireFox has provided a basic feature set of expected elements within a browser and made it highly customizable for a more personal experience.

The (not so) Awesome Bar is the only break from that tradition.  It does several things which no other aspect of FireFox does:

1) Forces a non-expected behaviour
 - The address bar is traditionally expected to contain addresses.  
 - The dropdown is traditionally expected to contain a list of previously visited addresses.  
 - The Awesome Bar forces that to include bookmarks and tagged items.
 - The Awesome Bar emphasizes document titles instead of addresses.

*Note: Document titles is problematic as well, if you were to visit a site regularly say by typing in "Hotmail" to find the login page in the Awesome Bar - then M$ rebrands and the document title changes to "Live Mail".  More problematic is document titles are not unique, site addresses are.  This could lead to abuse by disreputable sites mimicking common document titles so once you visit them they "bump" themselves up in your "search" of the address bar (not to mention phishing).  Also note that I do understand it is searching the url as well and that some of these are not overly common cases, it's more to make a point. 

2) Changes the roll of the address bar.
 - The traditional expectation is the address bar is for addresses
 - Address bar confuses this by introducing search mentality

*Note it can be argued that this was successful with the inclusion of Google "I'm feeling lucky" search functionality, however, this hampers that success by making you have to remember "did I add a keyword for this or is it going to lucky search?".  You might say, it doesn't matter, it'll give you the same result either way.  It does not.  Say, taking the example from the Firefox website, you add a keyword of imdb.  In 2.0 if I did "imdb Rachel Bison", it took me to her page.  In 3.0 with a keyword of imdb, it takes me to the imdb search results page.  

3) Customization 
 - The Awesome Bar is not overly customizable.  It's impossible to change it to any other functionality that is already proscribed by FireFox.  You are able to tweak that existing functionality, but not say "no, don't include bookmarks" "yes, search from the start of the website address" etc.
 - The Awesome Bar cannot be customized style wise.  Why can I not move the "star" bookmark feature to the left side of the url? or why can I not remove document titles? etc.  

The key issue really is that functionality that should have been added to the search bar has been added to the address bar.  "smart" words would be perfect for that, so using the previous case:  put "imdb Rachel Bison" in the address bar, it gives me "I'm feeling Lucky", put it in the search bar and it searches imdb, no need to add a search engine.  If no keyword is present, use the default search.  Or even better when you add a keyword, have it appear as a search engine.  So then you type it in, it switches search engines graphically so you now what it will be searching, then you type in your search.  This also adds the ability to say (again using previous case) type in imdb, it switches graphically to indicate a change in what is being searched, then you type in "Rachel Bison".  At this point, before searching, you can change the search engine if, this one time, you don't want the keyword to take effect and you actually want google to do a normal search for it.

This goes for bookmarks and document titles as well.  It makes more sense (to me) that when you type in the search bar it searches through your bookmarks/their document titles to see if there's something relevant you've already found and presents it ala Google Suggests.

The address bar, for myself and many others, was never about finding things, it was about speed.  It's faster for me to type in a url than to search for it, or find it in my bookmarks.  I can scan a list of urls quickly and easily because they are formatted the same and presented in an easy to understand, alphabetic manner.  The Awesome Bar takes this away and doesn't provide any manner to replace this key feature.  Could the 2.0 bar be improved?  Most definitely.  Is the Awesome Bar that improvement, no.  As it stands you might as well merge the search and location bars, which you would never do because it would confuse too many people trying to figure out "what will I get if I type this in here?"

I like the ideas behind it, I just think they're in the wrong place and take away from the previous experience.

Mark
Note:  in my previous comment point 2.2 should be "Awesome Bar" not "Address Bar"
Mark wrote it better than I ever could.  The Awesome Bar should be an option for the search bar, not replacing and removing the standard address bar functionality.  With over 10 years of using the standard address bar behaviour, it was something of a rude shock to see it completely blown away.  I literally can't remember a time when I couldnt just type a partial URL to a place I've been and have it pop right up...with the exception of the 30 minutes I had FF3 installed.
Couldn't agree more with the preceding consensus. The nonsensical adding of "features" without the consent of the user is a large part of what makes Windows products the garbage it is! Another example in 3.0 is the modifications to what was a perfectly serviceable "Organize Benchmarks" feature. The new version is pretty, but less intuitive and harder to use than its predecessor. If it ain't broke, DON'T "FIX" IT!
I forgot to add that displaying just the URL's icon (or, if absent, the "no-icon" icon) would be a perfectly acceptable default.
The old bookmark system made more sense and is in line with what all browsers have traditionally done to save url information. You need to make the awesome bar either conform to a well-tested and used system or make it optional so the user can choose. As it is now, I am using an outside bookmark manager instead of FireFox's crippled offering.


This is mostly fixed by the changes described in
http://ed.agadak.net/2008/07/firefox-31-restricts-matches-keywords
(In reply to comment #35)
> This is mostly fixed by the changes described in
> http://ed.agadak.net/2008/07/firefox-31-restricts-matches-keywords
> 

Mostly fixed isn't all fixed. Until there is an option to have the exact same functionality that Firefox 2 had, this is not fixed.
Having to tweak a bunch of things in about:config doesn't really fix this for the avg. user. Giving us an option when installing or an option in the Tools/Options area is what is needed.
The elements listed in the document linked to is a definite improvement over the current version and will go a long way to addressing some of the issues presented.

I'm curious, is there a reason behind the search and address bar not being customizable via addons/themes in the same way the majority of the program is?

Disagreements over style and functionality aside, it could be a beneficial route to look at to improve Firefox in future versions.

Mark
(In reply to comment #35)
> This is mostly fixed by the changes described in
> http://ed.agadak.net/2008/07/firefox-31-restricts-matches-keywords
> 

You must have posted in the wrong bug, because adding features to the awesome bar is the opposite of what this bug is about. This bug will be fixed when there is a checkbox in the "general" tab of the advanced options panel that says "Use old location bar."
Did you notice that one of those new features was being able to restrict matches to URLs in history?
Yes, and did you notice the title of this bug? "Awesome bar needs to be an option." Being able to type symbols to filter the results just makes the awesome bar an even bigger mess.

Maybe if the bug was titled "Allow regular expressions in the awesome bar" it would be a step in the right direction, but here it is not.
Read the blog post more carefully.  By setting some of the prefs to the empty string, you can make Firefox always restrict matches to URLs in history, not just when you type prefix symbols.
I read and it definitely addresses #1 in comment 29.  I actually think the regex idea is a great use of a basic tool to improve the user's experience.  While it will only benefit those who know about and can do regex, some of the simpler ones will undoubtedly be used by those who don't understand it fully.

I don't see how #2 and #3 in comment 29 have been addressed.  For #2, search mentality is nice within the limitations of visited sites - but I would still maintain that the smart words are in the wrong location and that functionality should be moved to the search bar.

#3 has not been addressed at all.  I'd be interested to hear what the UI experts at Mozilla think of this (rather than flames/flamebait).

Mark
Depends on: 451760, 395161
I don't agree that the new features discussed in the blog referenced by comment #35 fully addresses #1 in comment 29.  I adjusted the address bar ( I refuse to call it the "awesome" bar) in Fx3 as much as possible and also use Oldbar extension. This makes Fx3 tolerable on two virtual machines that I don't use  a great deal. On my main machines, I still use 1.5 where the address bar works almost perfectly. On 1.5 (and 2 also, but I never used 2 much for other reasons that are, ironically, fixed in 3) 99% of the time the first item in the drop down list if I type "g" or "gr" in the address bar is "www.google.com" and "www.grc.com" respectively which is exactly what I want.  As Mark points out in comment #29, the point of typing a letter or two in the address bar is speed. It is much faster to do that than to look in bookmarks, etc. I am continually struck by the vast difference in speed between the address bar in 1.5 and 2 and the accurateness of the first two or three entries in the drop down box and the one in 3.  

In Fx3, there is something wrong with the ability of the address bar to remember what I have typed in it. I don't clear my history for 120 days (or longer) yet more than 50% of the time if I type "g" in the address bar I get NO suggestion. I then type "go" and get no suggestion. I type "goog" and no suggestion. I end up having to type the entire address and even then about 50% of the time Fx3 will not add "http://www". I have to type that also.  I have been using Fx since early Phoenix days and I don't recall ever seeing this erratic behavior before in the address bar. The address bar, up until Fx3, has worked just as it should work. In Fx3, not only is it all gunked up with search features that I will never use, but it also cannot remember and show me "www.google.com" when I go there many times a day or "www.grc.com" which I also go to very frequently.  In Mozilla's zeal to create this "awesome" bar, I believe something happened that has made the basic function of the address bar completely unreliable in Fx3.  

As a longtime, loyal Fx user (default browser from the beginning and before that Mozilla was my default browser and before that Netscape), I don't understand why I should have to do all these things in about:config to half way fix the address bar of all things. The last thing in a browser that should need fixing by the user to work properly is the address bar which is basic to any browser.  I think Mozilla has it backwards. You need to go back to the normal behavior of the address bar as seen in all versions of Fx until now. That should be the standard, default behavior and those who want to gunk up the address bar with extraneous stuff that should be in the search bar, etc. they should be the ones who need to go into about:config and fix stuff and add prefix symbols when typing, and have to get an extension to make the bar look extremely messy like Awesome bar looks until you get Oldbar extension.  

Opera has just added some ridiculous search stuff and a messy, distracting, long drop down box to their browser's address bar. Microsoft has done the same with IE8 beta 2 which while I have beta 1, I will not be installing beta 2 but will revert to IE6 on XP and IE7 on Vista. I seldom use IE so I don't really care what Microsoft does but the last thing I want is to see Firefox doing the same thing the others are doing. The address bar should be sacrosanct. It is an address bar and should not be anything else than that.
I just think it's pretty stupid to proclaim Firefox 3 to have "the most ways to customize your online experience specifically for the way you use the web" and to say that "One Size Doesn’t Fit All" and then completely remove an important navigation element and replace it with something so incredibly counter-intuitive - without an option to change it back. 

I still don't understand the big idea behind putting bookmarks and history into the url bar - you already have sections for both history and bookmarks, there's no need to duplicate those functions and turn the url bar into a confusing mix of all sorts of information. Just let me figure out which sites I want to visit, I've been managing to accomplish this fine so far without any gimmick "awesome" features.
(In reply to comment #43)
You claim that the Awesome Bar is not working correctly yet you made a bunch of changes that no doubt effected the ability of the Awesome Bars performance.

If you revert to the defaults does the Awesome Bar still not work correctly if you type in a letter or word?

You make no mention if the Awesome Bar was working correctly before you changed things and that is very important when looking at issues.
No, it did not work properly before I made changes. If I typed "g" in the address bar I was confronted with about 50 different entries in the drop down box. They had nothing to do with plain ole "www.google.com". They were irrelevant. Not ONE of those entries was what I wanted. Earlier versions of Fx know that "g" typed means that I want to go to "www.google.com".  Giving me 50 irrelevant entries certainly cannot be construed in any way as "working properly". 

Awesome bar, by default, is incapable of working as an address bar is supposed to work.  An address bar is supposed to show you in the first entry in the drop down where you want to go (and you use it ONLY for speed in getting to a site that you go to a lot and for other sites you do the sensible thing and use bookmarks...that is what bookmarks is for isn't it)?  Awesome bar is a broken feature and a joke.  Why do you think I applied the changes in about:config that are recommended? I was told that those changes would give me the functionality of the address bar in earlier versions of Fx but applying those fixes does not give me the functionality of the address bar in Fx2 or earlier. As for Oldbar, that changes the look of the address bar back to earlier versions but doesn't change anything else. 

The irony here is that I always loved how Fx, in all earlier versions, gave me exactly what I wanted on the first or second entry of the drop down with just a letter (or maybe two or three) typed in the address bar, whereas, IE6 or, before it IE5.5 and even IE8 beta1, would make me scroll way down the list to find the entry. Fx NEVER made me scroll down.  I loved this about Fx and felt it was far superior to IE in this respect.  I go mostly to the same sites and I expect Fx address bar to immediately know what site I want since I only go to a handful on a regular basis. Fx3 hasn't a clue and that is what is wrong with so called "awesome" bar.
I would not know why you made changes because I would be guessing then as to your intentions. That is not how things are done.

Combining features under one UI is not unusual and as this feature is still being fleshed out.
Reading about frecency, the frecency score of -1 is "invalid", and any URL having that score are not displayed.  How about expanding that so that all negative scores are invalid, so that setting places.frecency.linkVisitBonus to -1 would prevent any URLs visited by following a link from showing up in the flawsome bar.
God damnit!  Frankly, this bar is not awesome.
Rather than let this discussion degrade further, lets re-frame it:

What are the fundamentals of:

User's expectations
Features being provided in both the past, current, and future versions
What the best user interface might be
What the best user experience might be

I think this would be far more productive and stand a better chance of implementing changes that will improve the UI for everyone.

I will comment to this later as well.

Mark
I won't upgrade firefox to 3.x-> or higher so long as you can't disable awful bar completly  to the old 2.x adress bar and algoritms

tested Firefox 3.0 for 3 h and changed in about:config 
but wasn't as FF 2.x adressbar not same behaviour :/
so i uninstalled 3.0 and installd old  good FF 2.x
the first new browser that can let me chose old adress bar behaviour 
i will use

to bad that opera to now uses like awfulbar :/
i hope in opera then it comes a option to disable it if not FF programers 
are smart egnough to make it optional to have not so "awsome bar"

i know many taht have reverted to FF2.x just because the not so "awsome bar"
the rest in 3.x is ok the most ppl thinks

but FF2.x is as good as FF3.x anyway 
For ME on MY computer FF2.x and 3.x take the same amount om memory
with the same amout of tabs (same pages to ofc)
and on MY computer FF2.x is faster then FF 3.x
so no improvments really for me to upgrade to FF 3.x

//crisun
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/7637

this addon is better then addon old bar
but not perfect mabye

//crisun
While many of the concerns expressed here are valid, the feedback on new location bar behavior in Fx3 has been overwhelmingly positive. The 3.1 release is not going to be held for this bug.

I encourage continued discussion, as I'd like to find a solution for the users who are not finding the Fx3 location bar behavior useful, to customize the behavior such that it suits them. I don't want to WONTFIX this bug and derail the conversation, so lets use this as a tracker for making the customizations possible for achieving parity with pre-3.0 behavior.

The first step IMO, is to figure out what the barriers are to implementing an extension that changes the location bar to look and behave *exactly* like it did in Fx2 and prior releases. From the comments here, it sounds like the 3.1 changes so far and the OldBar extension are not able to achieve this. Please file separate bugs on specific points at which the existing implementation and APIs are lacking in this regard, and make them block this bug.
Flags: blocking-firefox3.1? → blocking-firefox3.1-
I think that an extension with "hide thath folder" option could solve a lot of problem of privacy.
Dosen't matter to me 
"The 3.1 release
is not going to be held for this bug."

im still using 2.x (2.0.0.17)
so long as the S**t bar isn't optional im not going to change, 
FF 2 works as it is 
i PERSONALY dosen't see any benefits for 3.x
so long as FF 2.x get bugs/security fixed im going to contiune with FF 2 and if it stops im prolly going to change browser (if not the bar is fixed by then)
(In reply to comment #56)
> Dosen't matter to me 
> "The 3.1 release
> is not going to be held for this bug."
> 
> im still using 2.x (2.0.0.17)
> so long as the S**t bar isn't optional im not going to change, 
> FF 2 works as it is 
> i PERSONALY dosen't see any benefits for 3.x
> so long as FF 2.x get bugs/security fixed im going to contiune with FF 2 and if
> it stops im prolly going to change browser (if not the bar is fixed by then)

Full ack! i use too firefox 2, i hope i can use in the future FF 3 with the old bar... 

problem reported 2008-05-17, and not yet fixed????
I'm so said.

any devolper are here to make a build (or fork) with the old bar?
Flags: blocking1.9.0.4?
feature changes are not in scope for security updates, minusing for 1.9.0.x release.
Flags: blocking1.9.0.4? → blocking1.9.0.4-
I've signed up just to post this message...

Please please please let us have the FF2 bar in FF3 if we want it!
Just put a tiny tick-box in the options or something!

The reason i changed to Firefox from IE was because of how configurable it was... now after finally installing FF3 i just can't bare to use it because of this horrible bar (both slows up the browser and slows me up because of what it suggests). I just hate everything about it.

I'm going back to FF2 and not installing FF3 again until i can use the old FF2 bar!
If FF2 ceases to become a viable browser after it's support is ended and FF3 isn't fixed then i'm going to use another companies browser... simple as that really.
Did the old bar search the whole history? First, I was very annoyed that the Awesome bar only searched URLs I actually entered into the bar myself. Actually, I didn't know first, now I know and am merely annoyed.
it's beyond my comprehension how did they screw up the location bar so much, but the worst of it is not giving us an option to revert it to the old behavior...
Its some developer's baby, and just like parents at large these days, they can't see how their kid could possibly be misbehaving; anyone who says it is obviously doesn't know what they're talking about.  The awesome bar can do no wrong, and screw anyone who says otherwise (thats the exact impression I get from the little bit of developer feedback I've seen on the issue).

I'm still using FF2, and if I can't get standard address bar functionality when that ceases to be viable, I'm swapping browsers.  Took me 5 minutes to make opera's location bar work exactly as I wanted; they start out with something similar to FF3's bar but actually give you built in options to change its behaviour.  I've stopped preaching how nice firefox is to everyone months ago due to this 'feature.'
I absolutely hated Awesomebar. Really, really, *really*, hated it. If I hadn't found the Old Location Bar addon ( https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/7637 ), and how to edit the config files to get rid of the star buttons, I'd have uninstalled Firefox and switched to Opera.

I've used Firefox since v1, and watched it get slower, buggier, and more bloated with every new version, but the Awesomebar really took the second-guessing-the-user clutter-cake. I honestly do not think I've ever seen a worse misfeature in any software, ever. PLEASE don't turn Firefox into Netscape reborn!
(In reply to comment #63)
> I absolutely hated Awesomebar. Really, really, *really*, hated it. 

Full ack, all user of there comment here, find this so! 

> If I hadn't
> found the Old Location Bar addon (
> https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/7637 ), and how to edit the
> config files to get rid of the star buttons, I'd have uninstalled Firefox and
> switched to Opera.

I hope if a devolper of Firefox read this, he will speed up to build an option to for the old bar intro FF3. 

I hope, i must not wait longer, yet wait i since May.
I use yet FF2.

> I've used Firefox since v1, and watched it get slower, buggier, and more
> bloated with every new version, but the Awesomebar really took the
> second-guessing-the-user clutter-cake. I honestly do not think I've ever seen a
> worse misfeature in any software, ever. 

> PLEASE don't turn Firefox into Netscape
> reborn!

Full ack, Netscape is dead... don't kill FF 3+!

I'm not a devolper, and i have no money to pay any, i... oh ne we, need help for the old bar!
For whoever (if anyone) at Mozilla is looking at this bug, the title is completely wrong.  This is not a bug with the location bar and auto complete (although we'd dearly love to have the location bar with auto complete back instead of the flawsome bar), and it's pretty clear the version is 3+.

Another problem with the flawsome bar is that it seems to value deep links more than root addresses.  Typing in "amazon" in the bar draws up deep links to every product I've ever looked at on Amazon, but the Amazon home page is nowhere to be found.

It's baffling that the address I typed in 2 minutes ago is not found in the flawsome bar search results (or buried at the bottom of the list), but there is a bunch of **** I never typed in, some of it months old.  

The flawsome bar makes me go from mouse to keyboard to complete an action that used to be mouse-only (now it's select bar then type, previous select bar then select from drop-down).  This is just poor interface design.  Maybe the FF team should adopt user actions required to perform a task as a critical metric with the goal of reducing to minimum.
This bug has served as a dumping ground for everyone who has any issue with the new location bar behavior, and that's not a very effective use of Bugzilla. Some people have provided constructive criticism and have good ideas for improving the location bar behavior for everyone, but they're only going to get lost among the advocacy on this bug.

We're not going to be making the awesomebar optional, because the costs of maintaining two URL bar autocomplete implementations, both in terms of code complexity and in terms of testing, far outweigh the benefits.

The oldbar addon works for the people who are interested in preserving the old visual appearance, and we are going to fix bug 460343 to allow users to better control what sort of results appear. Other specific bugs on improving the location bar behavior for everyone are of course also welcome, but this bug as summarized is WONTFIX.
Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 16 years ago → 16 years ago
Resolution: --- → WONTFIX
Status: RESOLVED → VERIFIED
Bug 460343 lmost gets it right, but looking at the png (http://www.grabup.com/uploads/f3e8a316b815447a9bf4fe13f7b7fdc6.png), you needs to add a selection for "Only addresses I typed in" or some such wording to the drop down. Selecting only that item would return it to 2.x behavior (if not appearance), and that's all I'm asking for.  

Also, it would be useful to hold off search until 3 characters are typed in, since that would prevent the drop down from filling with unrelated ****.

Overall, I think putting search in the location bar instead of the already existing search bar was a bizarre choice in UI design, as it wiped out or obscured a number of expected and very useful behaviors without restoring them elsewhere.  In short, when a user types something into a box, he expects it to have priority in that box above things he did not type in that box.  In fact, most users expect it to be the only thing in that box.  This is not the case with the new location bar.
"this bug as summarized is WONTFIX."

Like I said, its a dev's baby and can do no wrong.  Opera/Chrome it is for me, and have fun going the way of netscape into ****, bloated obscurity as far as I'm concerned.  Overwhelming disappointment in you guys.  10+ years of perfect functionality completely broken because you want to.
(In reply to comment #68)
> "this bug as summarized is WONTFIX."
> 
> Like I said, its a dev's baby and can do no wrong.

If you read my comment again, you'll see that I said that no one is saying the current behavior is perfect, and that some good suggestions were made in this bug on ways to improve it, and that new specific bug reports about making those improvements to the location bar are always welcome. You're perfectly entitled to be so upset about the new feature that you switch browsers, but please, spare us the melodrama.
I guess it's too late to go back to the old location bar now, even if the developers wanted to. Firefox 4 perhaps?

The new location bar was huge gap between Firefox 2 and 3. It required extra effort from some of us users to adapt to without any way to revert back to the old location bar behaviour. Despite that I'm adapting to using Firefox 3 without abusing the new location bar so I'm still okay. :D

#69, I thought the purpose of this "bug" is to make the new location bar an option and not to provide suggestions to improve on it o.o? I think your job is done here (long ago.)

Well, whatever. Bye!
Sent here from my own wontfixed complaint. I wonder how many times this issue has been dupe-posted by incensed end-users? Some of the program issues moving forward resemble poorly-conceived features and stumbling upgrades in plenty of other software.

Some people despise the new "me-too" OpenOffice 3 Series.
Opera's Fast-forward is really only good for viewing media in web folders.
\If that's all it's good for, why didn't Opera fix/remove that "feature"?
How can linuxes with 32MB RAM do more than Ubuntu with 1GB RAM?

The bar at least needs more math to weight its displayed results. It's almost as though the designer had no knowledge of statistics or hitcounts, or never personally tested the finished product. Awesomebar made a good impression the first days that I used it, explaining high levels of good initial feedback. But as time passes and more details are added to the list, performance becomes more and more shoddy. Results take time to arrive, and the most relevant hits are near the bottom. Using Google Search is becoming faster/more reliable than the built-in bar.

At this point I'm just about ready to import my firefox bookmark database with Opera, then export it with Opera, then import it into a prior generation of Firefox....because there does not seem to be any easy bookmark export after THREE GENERATIONS OF BORED COLLEGE STUDENTS CONCOCTING THIS DIORAMA OF PAIN!
What's wrong with HTML export of your bookmarks (like has always been in Fx)?
(In reply to comment #71)
Using Google Search is becoming faster/more reliable than the
> built-in bar.
Yeah, that was pretty much the result of the Awesomebar for me too. I'd click the drop down link, stare at the random but oh-so-colorful URL salad for a few seconds, then either type the URL manually or go to google. Maybe the awfulbar works better if you only ever visit the same 10 sites, but with 300 bookmarks and constant jumping to new sites it's a big steaming pile.

> THREE GENERATIONS OF BORED COLLEGE STUDENTS CONCOCTING THIS DIORAMA OF PAIN!
Yeah... As a result of all this I tried Opera, and while it's infinitely more stable and bug free than Chrome, and while it's quite easy to use and the shortcut system works well, it has problems displaying a significant percentage of sites. So, before you bail, try the Old Bar addon. It's not perfect, but it does help a lot.
I for one am a little annoyed at this attitude that the oldbar add-on is 'close enough' - it is close enough for the specific purpose of reverting the address bar.  Unfortunately it also changes behaviours elsewhere in the browser in fixing the problems with the 'awesome bar'.  A prime example would be a search page - prior to installing the oldbar I would search, check some pages try another similar search and the pages I had visited previously if they appeared would show that I had visited them - this is no longer the case.  Now they all appear as unvisited but I get 'close enough' on the address bar.  So now I'm left with a choice between a bad feature or close enough that borks other more basic features.

Neither of these is appealing.
@72> After posting, I looked it up and found that the option is available, but only in the 'manage bookmarks' menu. I've never had to use it, because they are saved in an orderly fashion on the first pass. I also found many results of others posting requests for help with backing up/restoring bookmarks in firefox. Seems like this is a minor thing to fix and a major pain for many users at the same time. Almost everyone else has placed the option in a more intelligent and accessible place.


@73> 1) Amen to the church of math-free statistics. A single visit should not have the same priority as repeated visits, and the site root should ALWAYS be at the top of its block. Maybe organizing results with the top-level-domain in bold at top, then a few of the most recently visited subpages nested under its wing? Tags are old hat and they work fine, but no-one pays mind to page titles and there is no ability to search by page content. The address bar turns into something that does less than the Content Indexing Service built into XP. (Which by the way allows you to search body text and subprioritize results with a minimal learning curve, bugs, bloat, and very poor interface. Like a primitive ancestor to Google Desktop Search if you prefer THAT bloatware.)

2) I am reaching the unfortunate point where Opera has forced itself to become my primary browser. There are many issues with it, like some rude perpetual prototype, and it's got more version numbers than heaven and earth combined. However a) they've provided the 'open-with-another-browser' (or 'oops') option that I keep wanting in firefox, b) there are many easy and abuse-free ways to deal with trouble, and c) it's easier to manage things at the profile level. If a page doesn't work, I'm one right-click away from opening that page in Firefox.

Maybe it's the best extension I've found for my firefox experience?


@74> Seconded. Extensions do not integrate well with basic features. They appear to have critically relocated engine code in a way that tracks the wrong part of a page access, then stores it to the wrong component. Browser is a damn mess under the hood. I've begun looking into the Iceweasel branch for this type of reason. It may be possible that Iceweasel becomes the preferred release with sufficient defections.


----

PS: about:config seems painfully reminiscent of Ubuntu. It's not organized and uses programmer's naming conventions. This is very much in need of a facemask. Any alteration that requires you to blindly follow instructions is a recipe for disaster. And such work has always been needed, like the problems with pagedraws and number of server connections in older versions. Playing with those did more for speed than most of these alluded 'enhancements' in the code.
OK, I now used awesome bar for a while and don't think I need exactly the old one back ...

The specific issues I'm having with awesome bar:
* performance
* order of results
* not the whole history is searched, especially not pages I found using a search engine and did not enter manually

I will look for related bugs and address these issues one by one.
I doubt any developers will be looking here for further input, both because they don't CARE how many people are irritated by the "Awesomebar"'s faulty autocomplete and because this is probably not the right place.

But I'm too angry to spend any more time on this nonsense. I visit TWO websites with any regularity. One starts with "for". One has "for" in the title, but doesn't start with "for". When I type "for" in a WORKING address bar, I get the website which starts with "for". That would make sense, right?

Why the hell does Firefox not even provide an OPTION for that anymore? Even in the config file?

I'm switching to Chrome. I was drawn to Firefox because it seemed like the community could have an effect on the actual product. Since they obviously can't in this case, and "this case" has made it completely impossible to do what I want to do with Firefox, I have no reason whatsoever to keep using it.
In reply to comment 77:
Use SeaMonkey 2.0, specially designed to give users choice over everything. You'll find a whole section of the preferences window that controls the location bar.

Firefox 3.1 has the same options, but only available through about:config.

I think you'll find Chrome development much less open than it appears. 

The bug in question is bug 461483 and the preference is browser.urlbar.default.behavior.
The .js files that define much of Firefox's behavior are quite messy, and the comments haven't been stripped from them. I've been tinkering inside a Linux VM with stripping all embedded comments systemwide. Makes a fair change in memory use, If one is willing to forgo the line-by-line tutorials.


about:config still isn't much help for nontechnical users, especially without being parsed into an organized and human-readable menu.


Chrome is trash and I'm giving it a few months before trying it again, but I will have to take another look at Seamonkey. If 3.1 provides more and better controls for addressbar behavior, Firefox may even be allowed to remain on my PCs at that point.
Status: VERIFIED → REOPENED
Resolution: WONTFIX → ---
Status: REOPENED → RESOLVED
Closed: 16 years ago → 15 years ago
Resolution: --- → WONTFIX
Status: RESOLVED → VERIFIED
Status: VERIFIED → REOPENED
Resolution: WONTFIX → ---
notyou <c4sucks@hotmail.com> - stop reopening this bug or you'll get your bugzilla account disabled.  gavin is a browser peer, so he has the authority to WONTFIX a bug in this module which he exercised in comment 66.  If you wish to protest this, you can take it up with mconnor, who is the Firefox module owner.  The proper course of action is not to reopen the bug, however.
Status: REOPENED → RESOLVED
Closed: 15 years ago → 15 years ago
Resolution: --- → WONTFIX
obligatory etiquette link that I neglected to include in comment 80:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/page.cgi?id=etiquette.html
Status: RESOLVED → VERIFIED
Well, I guess I'm done with Firefox as they don't give a **** about the people that use their product. Many people hate the new RetardBar, but you are basically telling them, **** YOU, we are not going to give you an option to use the older, more functional URL bar that we had before FF3.
Status: VERIFIED → REOPENED
Resolution: WONTFIX → ---
This bug is WONTFIX.  Please understand that while we strive to make users happy, abusive comments and continuous reopening of bugs is not acceptable.  This is a community, but abuse of Bugzilla users because you don't like their opinion will not be tolerated.
Status: REOPENED → RESOLVED
Closed: 15 years ago → 15 years ago
Resolution: --- → WONTFIX
(In reply to comment #82)

notyou, please stop reopening the bug.  I agree with your complaints, believe me.  But the devs have spoken, and the choice is on us now: to use the new product or not.  Make your choice, as I have, and maybe in the future things will improve, but for now this avenue of input is essentially closed.  

The spam of the bug being constantly reopened and then re-closed is annoying, regardless of which side of the argument you're on.  Not to mention, it gets my hopes up every time.

(Also, because I'm not quite sure if it will after poking around a bit: if this re-opens the bug just due to my submitting a comment, my apologies.  I may deplore the path taken by the devs, but I'm not a fan of annoying folks for no good reason.  I just felt it necessary to chime in from the other side of the argument on the pointlessness of constantly reopening it.)
>>83

Thank you for the screenshot. I'll wait until 3.1 ships before removing Firefox from my systems.



Is there a reason that one person adds "resolved" and another adds "verified" for this topic? Some matter of permissions or etiquette, or just a difference in opinion? If it's wontfix, it doesn't seem as though it should matter.
Flags: in-litmus? → in-litmus-
Flags: in-testsuite?
Wontfix must mean Mozilla was bought out by microsoft.  Not sure why the developer would want FireFox to have the same functionality as Internet Explorer and that being as the only option.
Status: RESOLVED → VERIFIED
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