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I'm really surprised this is an issue for people. For as long as I can remember, the first thing I've done when installing a new browser is remove the search b

I'm really surprised this is an issue for people. For as long as I can remember, the first thing I've done when installing a new browser is remove the search bar and all of the toolbar buttons. Searching from the address bar is no more or less convenient than from the dedicated search field, and all of the other actions can be done faster using keyboard shortcuts or mouse gestures or, in my case, extra mouse buttons. What's the appeal of having a separate search bar taking up space?

vishesh 15y ago
I have added several other search for which the search bar is quite handy. But again its just upto person to person. Most of the times "I'm feeling Lucky" works however.
- jlarocco 15y ago
  You probably know about this, or maybe this isn't in Firefox, but most of the other browsers use 'keyword' searches from the address bar, which give access to every search engine you have configured. "g whatever" - Google "whatever" "w whatever" - Wikipedia search for "whatever" "a whatever" - Amazon search for "whatever" ... New shortcuts can be added and the existing ones can be changed. For example, when I type "g whatever", it searches Duck Duck Go.
  - icco 15y ago
    This exists in both Chrome and Firefox. I've used it for years and loved it.
    - blasdel 15y ago
      and in Chrome it's populated completely automatically based on your habits! It identifies site search fields in the pages you visit, and associates them with the domain itself and whatever terms you use to get to that domain. In Firefox it has to be manually configured for each site, with a user-specified prefix. When the fuck is a normal user going to do that?
bzbarsky 15y ago
> What's the appeal Not having every url I type in sent to Google is the main appeal.
- jlarocco 15y ago
  Only if you use Google as your main search. And you can turn it off in any case.
  - bzbarsky 15y ago
    The point is that the typical Chrome user is ending up sending all their URLs to Google, probably without even realizing it. What fraction of them do you think would be OK with this if it were pointed out to them? My anecdotal sample suggests about 50% or so. Violating the privacy of 50% of their users in a way they do not desire by default is not something Mozilla is likely to do. Google of course considers this perfectly ok, as expected. They don't believe in this antiquated "privacy" thing to start with. As far as "turn it off", you can also switch to using a single combined search bar in Firefox if you want to mess with the settings. This discussion is about defaults.
    - Kylekramer 15y ago
      Google isn't even Chrome's default browser, technically. They had a ballot selection box on the first use for awhile.
      - bzbarsky 15y ago
        Interesting. That wasn't there last I checked! But the point remains: they send what you type in the url bar to your default search engine. This is not behavior many users are OK with once they realize it's happening.

vishesh 15y ago

I have added several other search for which the search bar is quite handy. But again its just upto person to person. Most of the times "I'm feeling Lucky" works however.

jlarocco 15y ago
You probably know about this, or maybe this isn't in Firefox, but most of the other browsers use 'keyword' searches from the address bar, which give access to every search engine you have configured. "g whatever" - Google "whatever" "w whatever" - Wikipedia search for "whatever" "a whatever" - Amazon search for "whatever" ... New shortcuts can be added and the existing ones can be changed. For example, when I type "g whatever", it searches Duck Duck Go.
- icco 15y ago
  This exists in both Chrome and Firefox. I've used it for years and loved it.
  - blasdel 15y ago
    and in Chrome it's populated completely automatically based on your habits! It identifies site search fields in the pages you visit, and associates them with the domain itself and whatever terms you use to get to that domain. In Firefox it has to be manually configured for each site, with a user-specified prefix. When the fuck is a normal user going to do that?

bzbarsky 15y ago

> What's the appeal Not having every url I type in sent to Google is the main appeal.

jlarocco 15y ago
Only if you use Google as your main search. And you can turn it off in any case.
- bzbarsky 15y ago
  The point is that the typical Chrome user is ending up sending all their URLs to Google, probably without even realizing it. What fraction of them do you think would be OK with this if it were pointed out to them? My anecdotal sample suggests about 50% or so. Violating the privacy of 50% of their users in a way they do not desire by default is not something Mozilla is likely to do. Google of course considers this perfectly ok, as expected. They don't believe in this antiquated "privacy" thing to start with. As far as "turn it off", you can also switch to using a single combined search bar in Firefox if you want to mess with the settings. This discussion is about defaults.
  - Kylekramer 15y ago
    Google isn't even Chrome's default browser, technically. They had a ballot selection box on the first use for awhile.
    - bzbarsky 15y ago
      Interesting. That wasn't there last I checked! But the point remains: they send what you type in the url bar to your default search engine. This is not behavior many users are OK with once they realize it's happening.