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When I was using Firefox I used this extension to unify the address/search bars. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/omnibar/ https://addons.mozilla

When I was using Firefox I used this extension to unify the address/search bars. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/omnibar/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/omnibar/

binarymax 13y ago
Wow, thanks!
epmatsw 13y ago
Is this not default behavior? I've never had an addon installed, but just typing in a query and pressing enter in the URL routes it to Google... Edit: Ah, I suppose the auto-complete is different.
- binarymax 13y ago
  Also Sometimes for some non URL queries it defaults to what feels like an 'I'm feeling lucky' search.
  - FreeFull 13y ago
    I don't think it does that anymore. I haven't observed it for quite a while.
    - wukkuan 13y ago
      I can confirm that. I really miss that feature.
  - abrowne 13y ago
    It doesn't do that anymore, since at least last fall when I switched to Firefox full time. I remember running into this previously -- maybe Fx 3.5 days? -- when I tried to do a unit conversion google search and it would send me to a horrible unit conversion site.
rca 13y ago
Since the post was about privacy I'd like to point out that unifying the address and search bar means that you can't search through your history/bookmarks (or do keywords searches) without sending the information to your search engine (so that it can show result propositions) which is kind of a privacy leak IMO. Also when nothing from your history/bookmarks/keywords searches have matched in the awesome bar, it does act like a search bar. You just don't have result propositions as you type.
bad_user 13y ago
I don't use Omnibar, because by typing words into the address bar directly, Firefox does do a search. Also Firefox's address bar is much better at searching your history, saving you from doing Google searches. For example you can type the words in the titles of articles you've read and Firefox's AwesomeBar does a good job at suggesting past entries. This is awesome when you no longer remember the domain or url, but you remember a word or two. In such instances searching on Google doesn't help either. This feature to me has been an epiphany actually. Google has no interest in developing something like the AwesomeBar, because they'd rather see you doing searches on Google instead.
- snogglethorpe 13y ago
  > Google has no interest in developing something like the AwesomeBar As far as I can tell, chrome's address-bar behavior is trying to do something like the FF "awesome bar", i.e., combine searches of past urls and titles of pages you've visited, plus google search results, etc., into a single DWIM-like result. Chrome's results aren't as good as FF's (I typically have to type more to get what what I'm looking for, and the ordering is often not ideal), but it does appear to have similar goals. Chrome used to be much worse at this, but seems to have improved somewhat over time. As to why exactly FF's results are better, my guess is that it weights the results differently, emphasizing pages you've visited often even if the match is in the middle somewhere, whereas chrome seems to give prefix matches more weight.... [I normally use FF, but use chrome occasionally too...]

When I was using Firefox I used this extension to unify the address/search bars. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/omnibar/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/omnibar/

binarymax 13y ago

Wow, thanks!

epmatsw 13y ago

Is this not default behavior? I've never had an addon installed, but just typing in a query and pressing enter in the URL routes it to Google... Edit: Ah, I suppose the auto-complete is different.

binarymax 13y ago
Also Sometimes for some non URL queries it defaults to what feels like an 'I'm feeling lucky' search.
- FreeFull 13y ago
  I don't think it does that anymore. I haven't observed it for quite a while.
  - wukkuan 13y ago
    I can confirm that. I really miss that feature.
- abrowne 13y ago
  It doesn't do that anymore, since at least last fall when I switched to Firefox full time. I remember running into this previously -- maybe Fx 3.5 days? -- when I tried to do a unit conversion google search and it would send me to a horrible unit conversion site.

rca 13y ago

Since the post was about privacy I'd like to point out that unifying the address and search bar means that you can't search through your history/bookmarks (or do keywords searches) without sending the information to your search engine (so that it can show result propositions) which is kind of a privacy leak IMO. Also when nothing from your history/bookmarks/keywords searches have matched in the awesome bar, it does act like a search bar. You just don't have result propositions as you type.

bad_user 13y ago

I don't use Omnibar, because by typing words into the address bar directly, Firefox does do a search. Also Firefox's address bar is much better at searching your history, saving you from doing Google searches. For example you can type the words in the titles of articles you've read and Firefox's AwesomeBar does a good job at suggesting past entries. This is awesome when you no longer remember the domain or url, but you remember a word or two. In such instances searching on Google doesn't help either. This feature to me has been an epiphany actually. Google has no interest in developing something like the AwesomeBar, because they'd rather see you doing searches on Google instead.

snogglethorpe 13y ago
> Google has no interest in developing something like the AwesomeBar As far as I can tell, chrome's address-bar behavior is trying to do something like the FF "awesome bar", i.e., combine searches of past urls and titles of pages you've visited, plus google search results, etc., into a single DWIM-like result. Chrome's results aren't as good as FF's (I typically have to type more to get what what I'm looking for, and the ordering is often not ideal), but it does appear to have similar goals. Chrome used to be much worse at this, but seems to have improved somewhat over time. As to why exactly FF's results are better, my guess is that it weights the results differently, emphasizing pages you've visited often even if the match is in the middle somewhere, whereas chrome seems to give prefix matches more weight.... [I normally use FF, but use chrome occasionally too...]