485588 - Add "use as a search term" to "address not found" page

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 1080682

(Firefox :: Address Bar, defect)

Description

[era+mozilla]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.0.7) Gecko/2009030422 Ubuntu/8.10 (intrepid) Firefox/3.0.7
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.0.7) Gecko/2009030422 Ubuntu/8.10 (intrepid) Firefox/3.0.7

Forwarding from https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox-3.0/+bug/263505

Altogether too often when I get the "Address Not Found" page, it is because I expected too much from the Wonderful Bar or whatever it's called. It would be a useful addition if the "Address Not Found" page could offer the option to use the stuff you typed into the location bar as input for your designated search engine, and/or perform history search on those terms. (For me, the former is the more useful, but I expect both would be handy, and the effort to offer both is probably marginal if you decide to do one or the other.)

All to often, what you typed in is no longer visible in the location bar, because http:// gets prepended and sometimes a .com appended to what is displayed in the location bar at the point you get the "Address Not Found" error.

I am the original reporter.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Type something in the location bar and expect to get the Google results.
2. If that something contains a dot in the first token (or probably some other nonalphabetics -- colon and slash probably work, too), you lose, and Firefox will attempt to use it as a web address and connect to it.

Actual Results:  
Firefox gets sluggish for an eon or two, and finally displays the "Address Not Found" page.

Now getting back the data you tried to submit as a Google query is a hassle, because what's in the location bar has been "intelligently" adapted with a leading http://www. and a trailing slash. Editing those out isn't a big deal, but it's irritating, especially if you make this mistake often.

So it would help if the "Address Not Found" page would include a clickable link with "Perhaps you meant to search for '<<original input>>' in Google?" amongst all the other well-meaning troubleshooting suggestions.

Expected Results:  
Google search result for the terms you typed in.  Or failing that, at least a hassle-free way to get the Google results for what I typed in.

E.g. no.5 is a good test case.

Here's a mock-up of the resulting display so you don't have to repro.

Page Load Error - Mozilla Firefox

Location: [ http://www.no.5/ ]

/!\ Address Not Found

Firefox can't find the server at www.no.5.

The browser could not find the host server for the provided address.

    * Did you make a mistake when typing the domain? (e.g. "ww.mozilla.org" instead of "www.mozilla.org")
    * Are you certain this domain address exists? Its registration may have expired.
    * Are you unable to browse other sites? Check your network connection and DNS server settings.
    * Is your computer or network protected by a firewall or proxy? Incorrect settings can interfere with Web browsing.

Comment 2

[era+mozilla]

What does it take to get this CONFIRMED?  I note that there is a duplicate, with additional scenarios where this would be useful.

I see from the comments in the corresponding Ubuntu bug report that the rationale for the proposed behavior is not immediately obvious to some readers, so let me elaborate here a bit.  The point is not failure to see that there are workarounds, but that the awkwardness of the available workarounds, coupled with the annoyance of the browser not Doing What You Mean, ought to merit what seems like a very minor redesign.

E.g. typing the name of a Java string class into the Awfully Named Bar should at least give you an option to retrieve the search results for that term, rather than just turn it into an Address Not Found page and an unhelpfully mangled URL in the location bar.

Comment 3

[lostinthe4th]

I have this issue as well (or at least it's an issue with me). It seems as though Firefox checks the current DNS for the search terms first, as if they were a web address, and then, when it gets nothing back, it preforms a Google search. The problem with that is that my DNS doesn't cooperate every time, sometimes sending back not found errors, or, oddly even more frustrating, there own "not found - here are some search results from yahoo" page.

The moral of the story? Before sending a query to the DNS, Firefox needs to check if what is in the address bar is actually a web address (containing http, .com, what have you), if it is not, hit up Google, if it is, go ahead to the DNS.

The back story about the DNS querying is just my educated guess, but I hope you catch my drift nonetheless.

Comment 4

[era+mozilla]

(In reply to comment #2)
> What does it take to get this CONFIRMED? 

Ping?  I meant NEW of course.  Could someone with "canconfirm" privileges please assess this bug?  Thanks!

Comment 5

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

Reporter, Firefox 4.0.1 has been released, and it features significant improvements over previous releases. Can you please update to Firefox 4.0.1 or later, and retest your bug? Please also create a fresh profile (
http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Managing+profiles), update your plugins (Flash, Java, Quicktime, Reader, etc) and update your graphics driver and Operating system to the latest versions available. 

If you still continue to see this issue, please comment. If you do not, please close this bug as RESOLVED > WORKSFORME

filter: prefirefox4uncobugs

Comment 6

[era+mozilla]

Yes, this is still identical under 4.0.1 (unsurprisingly, and trivially reproducible).  Reproduced in VirtualBox fresh install of Ubuntu 11.04 (still had Firefox 4.0.0) and Windows 4.0.1 with a fresh profile.

> Could someone with "canconfirm" privileges please assess this bug?

Still topical.  Thanks in advance.

Comment 8

[Darshana Padmadas]

Hello! I'd like to get started on this bug ? Could this be assigned to me ?

Comment 9

[(Currently slow to respond) Philipp Sackl [:phlsa] (Firefox UX) please use needinfo]

Hi Darshana,
great to want to tackle this one! I just assigned it to you. (By the way: You can also assign bugs to yourself in the bug summary at the top of this page).

I see that you are new to Bugzilla, so if you need help getting started, #introduction on irc.mozilla.org is the place to go.
Here's a page about how to build Firefox:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Developer_Guide/Build_Instructions

Happy Hacking!

Comment 10

[yadobaka]

This is a huge issue for me. 

I am often copying error messages (such as "Error: Unexpected value") into the address bar expecting it to search for the error.

If an error has a colon in it, as errors typically do, Firefox brings me to the "The address wasn't understood" page when it should search for the error instead.

Comment 11

[Marco Bonardo [:mak] (Away Apr 25 - May 5)]

part of this is fixed, we still don't properly recognize valid tlds...