521982 - [ca] Choose search plug-ins for Fennec in Catalan

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Mozilla Localizations :: ca / Catalan, defect)

Description

[Staś Małolepszy :stas]

You've indicated an interest in participating in the localization of mobile Firefox (aka Fennec). We want to ship Fennec with a good list of search engines for Catalan. As the technical details of implementation are being worked on, we'd like to start the discussion about the choice of search engines. This bug is about agreeing on a set of search engines, and will not tackle the implementation (at least not yet).

First, the localization team and Staś will look at the market for the locale and come up with a good set of search providers. The guidelines for making recommendations are on https://wiki.mozilla.org/L10n:Mobile/Productization. You're welcome to suggest engines already shipped in desktop Firefox for Catalan, if they fit well in the categories outlined on the wiki.

For en-US, we currently use the following set, which may serve as an inspiration:
Google, Wikipedia, Amazon, Yahoo, Twitter.

Note that according to the guidelines, for some categories it may be better to leave them empty than to ship with en engine that's irrelevant or unavailable in your region.

After we decided on a particular search engine, we will need to test it in Fennec. You can test on a mobile device and on the desktop (download the builds from <http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/mobile/nightly/>). Staś will help with testing on a device, too. If the service works fine, Staś will contact the owner and ask for permission, and for specifics like proper search flags. $name, we'll likely need your help to at least get the contact information if we don't have them already.

We don't know the implementation details yet, so for now, please don't create patches nor land anything. We will keep you posted as we figure out the how's and when's.

Thanks.

Comment 1

[Seth Bindernagel]

Hi Guys:  Just a friendly reminder, as we move closer to the general availability date for Fennec in mid-December, has your team had any chance to consider search providers?  Thanks!

Comment 2

[Staś Małolepszy :stas]

Attachment: Bootstrapping search engines with Google, localized Wikipedia and Twitter

Here's a patch resetting the mobile/searchplugins/ directory to a minimal set of search engines that we would like to ship your locale with. Please read this comment carefully before you land this patch.

*Important*: There has been a change to how we use the  <Description/> elements present in the plug-ins (see bug 528655 and bug 529869). We want to emphasize that the search is integrated with the browser to better reflect what a search plugin is and what it does. You will need to edit the Wikipedia plug-in before you commit this patch. Please read <https://wiki.mozilla.org/L10n:Integrated_Search_Instructions> for detailed instructions.

For Google and Twitter, we don't have to copy the XML files to your mobile/searchplugins/ directory. Plugins identical to en-US are pulled from source automatically. It's enough to put the engine's name in list.txt for this to work (which I did). I also updated the Wikipedia plug-in to use a bigger icon, see bug 517997 for details.

Please edit the Wikipedia plug-in and commit this patch before you opt-in in the mozilla.dev.l10n newsgroup. Opt-ins without this patch will not be taken. This does not mean that we don't want to include other search engines. On the contrary, the work and the discussion will continue in this bug until we choose a good set of search engines for your locale. Then, you will be able to opt in again, so that in the final release we include more search engines than the mineral set from this patch.

This patch is simply meant to reset your mobile/searchplugins directory so that we keep the repository clean and happy.

Thanks for understanding!

Comment 3

[Toni Hermoso Pulido]

We would like to have the following services for Fennec in Catalan:

* Google
* Wikipedia in Catalan
* Diccionari de la llengua catalana multilingüe (http://www.multilingue.cat/)
--> This is a Catalan dictionary with words definitions, but also word translations to Spanish, French, English and German. We consider it may be useful for Catalan Fennec users, who are more likely to work in multilingual environments.
* Google Maps
--> Compared to other local services, it's the most comprehensive in Catalan-speaking territories and available in Catalan as well.
* Huubs
--> A kind of Google News of Catalan-speaking media. Already as a searchplugin in Firefox

Comment 4

[Toni Hermoso Pulido]

As explained:
http://llistes.softcatala.org/pipermail/mozilla/2009-December/000489.html

we have the following 4 by now: Google, Viquipèdia, Huubs and Twitter.
We were discussing with Staś about adding IEC one as well, but after he tried it with his Nokia device, he noticed that results are 'below the fold'. That means that user should scroll down for seeing the actual result after a search is performed.
What's your opinion? Should we add this? Staś just tried GREC, and it gave better result. Maybe this could be a better option, what would you think?

Thanks!

Comment 5

[Staś Małolepszy :stas]

Please compare these two screenshots:
http://l10n.mozilla.org/~stas/fennec-search/screenshot07.png
http://l10n.mozilla.org/~stas/fennec-search/screenshot08.png

GREC looks much better IMO, but I noticed that I has a very bad habit of freezing Fennec completely, to the point where you have to kill the process or wait for it to crash... It happened to me 3 out of 4 times when I did the search there. Not good :(

Comment 6

[Toni Hermoso Pulido]

Tested in Fennec 1.1 beta and result is fine.
We might open another bug for changes or new searchplugins in the future.