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Personally I like them separate. But I’ve been working with folks who are not very computer literate at all and I think I agree with you. If one doesn’t know wh

Personally I like them separate. But I’ve been working with folks who are not very computer literate at all and I think I agree with you. If one doesn’t know what a URL is in the first place, how would one distinguish which box to type in?

small_scombrus 2y ago
Having them be the same can make tech support a nightmare trying to figure out whether someone actually successfully entered a URL or if they just googled it :( (I personally love the URL bar & search bar being the same bar)
- williamscales 2y ago
  I get the luxury of working with folks in person. In 99% of cases the search produces the right website as the first result. But yeah idk maybe AOL had something going with keywords in some sense in terms of accessibility ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
int_19h 2y ago
The one that says "Search" in it?
- williamscales 2y ago
  You’d be surprised how many folks don’t turn up their font size when they have bad vision
  - yencabulator 2y ago
    You'd be surprised how hard adjusting font sizes in UI elements can be.
    - zzo38computer 2y ago
      It should not need to be, if designed well. For example, the operating system facilities could make it that UI sizes will be specified by character size instead of by pixels, and then the operating system facilities can allow the user to adjust the UI fonts, so that any programs could use them.
Nemo_bis 2y ago
It's because of the omnibox that people no longer know what an URL is.
- williamscales 2y ago
  I think that’s part of it. I love URLs (and URIs). Another big part is the predominance of closed social media platforms where the concept of a URL is mostly irrelevant
- Dalewyn 2y ago
  You have it backwards: The omnibox (or whatever you want to call it) came about because people don't know what the hell a Universal Resource Locator is. Most people don't know how to navigate their local file system, let alone the internet.
  - arcanemachiner 2y ago
    > Universal Resource Locator The U stands for "uniform". Which kinda supports your point, actually.
    - Dalewyn 2y ago
      I guess that's showing my age, URI used to stand for Universal Resource Identifier which URL derives from. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_Resource_Identifier#Refinement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_Resource_Identifier#Re... >The publication of IETF RFC 2396 in August 1998 saw the URI syntax become a separate specification and most of the parts of RFCs 1630 and 1738 relating to URIs and URLs in general were revised and expanded by the IETF. The new RFC changed the meaning of U in URI from "Universal" to "Uniform."
  - makeitdouble 2y ago
    Yes. To dig a bit, they don't know because platform providers have pushed the net in that direction for decades. AOL keywords were thing. Then fancy domain names that don't sound like domain names. Then search keywords. Then hashtags etc. The goal has always been to not ask the customer to think about it and just get to businesses.

small_scombrus 2y ago

Having them be the same can make tech support a nightmare trying to figure out whether someone actually successfully entered a URL or if they just googled it :( (I personally love the URL bar & search bar being the same bar)

williamscales 2y ago
I get the luxury of working with folks in person. In 99% of cases the search produces the right website as the first result. But yeah idk maybe AOL had something going with keywords in some sense in terms of accessibility ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

int_19h 2y ago

The one that says "Search" in it?

williamscales 2y ago
You’d be surprised how many folks don’t turn up their font size when they have bad vision
- yencabulator 2y ago
  You'd be surprised how hard adjusting font sizes in UI elements can be.
  - zzo38computer 2y ago
    It should not need to be, if designed well. For example, the operating system facilities could make it that UI sizes will be specified by character size instead of by pixels, and then the operating system facilities can allow the user to adjust the UI fonts, so that any programs could use them.

Nemo_bis 2y ago

It's because of the omnibox that people no longer know what an URL is.

williamscales 2y ago
I think that’s part of it. I love URLs (and URIs). Another big part is the predominance of closed social media platforms where the concept of a URL is mostly irrelevant
Dalewyn 2y ago
You have it backwards: The omnibox (or whatever you want to call it) came about because people don't know what the hell a Universal Resource Locator is. Most people don't know how to navigate their local file system, let alone the internet.
- arcanemachiner 2y ago
  > Universal Resource Locator The U stands for "uniform". Which kinda supports your point, actually.
  - Dalewyn 2y ago
    I guess that's showing my age, URI used to stand for Universal Resource Identifier which URL derives from. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_Resource_Identifier#Refinement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_Resource_Identifier#Re... >The publication of IETF RFC 2396 in August 1998 saw the URI syntax become a separate specification and most of the parts of RFCs 1630 and 1738 relating to URIs and URLs in general were revised and expanded by the IETF. The new RFC changed the meaning of U in URI from "Universal" to "Uniform."
- makeitdouble 2y ago
  Yes. To dig a bit, they don't know because platform providers have pushed the net in that direction for decades. AOL keywords were thing. Then fancy domain names that don't sound like domain names. Then search keywords. Then hashtags etc. The goal has always been to not ask the customer to think about it and just get to businesses.