4 ms·

I have not downloaded it, so forgive me if it is there and I don't see it. Still no omnibar? Why a separated dedicated search field?

icebraining 12y ago
Privacy; it avoids sending your URLs to the search engine. As usual, there are addons to change that behavior, if you so which.
- davidcollantes 12y ago
  Thank you, and the others who replied.
ajanuary 12y ago
With an omnibar everything you type in your url bar gets sent to the search provider. Lots of people don't like that (I'm personally okay with it, so I use Chrome).
- nullc 12y ago
  Are you also okay with it giving it to every party the search provider gives it to? Business partners (?), employees snooping, government agencies (with or without lawful process), hackers who've compromised the provider's business? Are the people who's sites you're using also okay with you passing URLs on their sites to your search provider? Do you ever accidentally paste confidential text in the wrong field? Because there is no way to tell if the data is being logged (or, importantly, to prove that it isn't) it is prudent to assume it is, with an infinite retention— will your opinions about sharing todays data change if the search provider's behavior changes tomorrow? if some relevant government changes policy tomorrow? Does the fact that you can't ever take it back concern you? These are some of the things I think of about it— and are why I wouldn't intentionally use such a feature regardless of how positive I feel about my search provider. And because of these thoughts— especially that I can't really make any binding commitment to future policy, or really guarantee that my policy is being followed (e.g. intelligence agency plants on staff) if I were a search provider I would not run such a service, unless I could figure out a way to build it such that I _couldn't_ turn evil, knowingly or unknowingly today or tomorrow.
  - lern_too_spel 12y ago
    You could make the same criticism about hosted email. Do you run your own email server and communicate only with other PGP users?
    - bqe 12y ago
      Lets not pretend that every keystroke you type into the Omnibar being sent to Google is the same as using Fastmail. They're extremely different from a privacy perspective.
      - lern_too_spel 12y ago
        Let's not pretend that Chrome forces you to send every keystroke to Google. It's a feature controlled by a check box that most people find convenient. It's exactly like using Fastmail. It's a convenience over self-hosted mail that sends all my email to Fastmail. Just like Omnibox, you have a choice to use it, and just like Omnibox, it sends a lot of personal information to a third party.
        nullc 12y ago
        When I use gmail for mailing lists it doesn't result in Google getting my self hosted personal mail or my work mail. It's not really analogous at all. And even if it were— a different privacy leak doesn't make other ones irrelevant.
        lern_too_spel 12y ago
        The point is it isn't a privacy leak at all, and we were never talking about mailing lists. We're specifically talking about whether Omnibox is a feature that should never be implemented by anybody, as you originally claimed, because it gives away too much information. By that same argument, hosted email shouldn't be implemented by anybody because it gives away even more information. The reason people don't complain about hosted email is the same reason it's ridiculous to complain about Omnibox. Even though it gives information to the service provider, the service provider provides value on top of that information that makes a vast majority of people prefer it to the alternative, which people also have an option to use (by unchecking a check box or by running their own mail server).
mateuszf 12y ago
Privacy concerns.
Spittie 12y ago
Privacy. If you type something in the search bar, this get sent to your search provider to provide suggestions. Instead everything you type in the url bar doesn't get sent over the internet.
espadrine 12y ago
"Omnibar" is how Chrome calls it. "Awesome bar" is the name Firefox had given its own, even before then. The main difference is that the Omnibar logs all your keystrokes to Google's servers. The Awesome bar searches through the data it already has locally (bookmarks, history, open tabs), and it makes a Google search if the data you entered isn't a URL. Not logging your keystrokes is a privacy feature. On the other hand, the dedicated search field does, and that's its feature. I personally can't see the difference in usage between the Omnibar and the Awesome bar, apart from the fact that the search suggestions make more sense in the Awesome bar, since it only uses my past searches. Follow my advice: use the brand new interface customization UX and remove the dedicated search field.
- renox 12y ago
  Note that you can't remove reliably the suggestions from the Omnibar bar, used an "embarrassing" website in non-anonymous mode? Too bad for you, because your wife can see the suggestion..
  - nullc 12y ago
    Highlight the suggestion and hit delete. This works reliably for me. This was basically the only awesomebar behavior I didn't like, it became much more usable for me after that... not even embarrassing sites: I'd typo a URL and awesomebar would help me typo it forever more. I wish the delete feature were more discoverable, however.
    - renox 12y ago
      Yes, I've read this tips many times, but it still doesn't work..

icebraining 12y ago

Privacy; it avoids sending your URLs to the search engine. As usual, there are addons to change that behavior, if you so which.

davidcollantes 12y ago
Thank you, and the others who replied.

ajanuary 12y ago

With an omnibar everything you type in your url bar gets sent to the search provider. Lots of people don't like that (I'm personally okay with it, so I use Chrome).

nullc 12y ago
Are you also okay with it giving it to every party the search provider gives it to? Business partners (?), employees snooping, government agencies (with or without lawful process), hackers who've compromised the provider's business? Are the people who's sites you're using also okay with you passing URLs on their sites to your search provider? Do you ever accidentally paste confidential text in the wrong field? Because there is no way to tell if the data is being logged (or, importantly, to prove that it isn't) it is prudent to assume it is, with an infinite retention— will your opinions about sharing todays data change if the search provider's behavior changes tomorrow? if some relevant government changes policy tomorrow? Does the fact that you can't ever take it back concern you? These are some of the things I think of about it— and are why I wouldn't intentionally use such a feature regardless of how positive I feel about my search provider. And because of these thoughts— especially that I can't really make any binding commitment to future policy, or really guarantee that my policy is being followed (e.g. intelligence agency plants on staff) if I were a search provider I would not run such a service, unless I could figure out a way to build it such that I _couldn't_ turn evil, knowingly or unknowingly today or tomorrow.
- lern_too_spel 12y ago
  You could make the same criticism about hosted email. Do you run your own email server and communicate only with other PGP users?
  - bqe 12y ago
    Lets not pretend that every keystroke you type into the Omnibar being sent to Google is the same as using Fastmail. They're extremely different from a privacy perspective.
    - lern_too_spel 12y ago
      Let's not pretend that Chrome forces you to send every keystroke to Google. It's a feature controlled by a check box that most people find convenient. It's exactly like using Fastmail. It's a convenience over self-hosted mail that sends all my email to Fastmail. Just like Omnibox, you have a choice to use it, and just like Omnibox, it sends a lot of personal information to a third party.
      - nullc 12y ago
        When I use gmail for mailing lists it doesn't result in Google getting my self hosted personal mail or my work mail. It's not really analogous at all. And even if it were— a different privacy leak doesn't make other ones irrelevant.
        lern_too_spel 12y ago
        The point is it isn't a privacy leak at all, and we were never talking about mailing lists. We're specifically talking about whether Omnibox is a feature that should never be implemented by anybody, as you originally claimed, because it gives away too much information. By that same argument, hosted email shouldn't be implemented by anybody because it gives away even more information. The reason people don't complain about hosted email is the same reason it's ridiculous to complain about Omnibox. Even though it gives information to the service provider, the service provider provides value on top of that information that makes a vast majority of people prefer it to the alternative, which people also have an option to use (by unchecking a check box or by running their own mail server).

mateuszf 12y ago

Privacy concerns.

Spittie 12y ago

Privacy. If you type something in the search bar, this get sent to your search provider to provide suggestions. Instead everything you type in the url bar doesn't get sent over the internet.

espadrine 12y ago

"Omnibar" is how Chrome calls it. "Awesome bar" is the name Firefox had given its own, even before then. The main difference is that the Omnibar logs all your keystrokes to Google's servers. The Awesome bar searches through the data it already has locally (bookmarks, history, open tabs), and it makes a Google search if the data you entered isn't a URL. Not logging your keystrokes is a privacy feature. On the other hand, the dedicated search field does, and that's its feature. I personally can't see the difference in usage between the Omnibar and the Awesome bar, apart from the fact that the search suggestions make more sense in the Awesome bar, since it only uses my past searches. Follow my advice: use the brand new interface customization UX and remove the dedicated search field.

renox 12y ago
Note that you can't remove reliably the suggestions from the Omnibar bar, used an "embarrassing" website in non-anonymous mode? Too bad for you, because your wife can see the suggestion..
- nullc 12y ago
  Highlight the suggestion and hit delete. This works reliably for me. This was basically the only awesomebar behavior I didn't like, it became much more usable for me after that... not even embarrassing sites: I'd typo a URL and awesomebar would help me typo it forever more. I wish the delete feature were more discoverable, however.
  - renox 12y ago
    Yes, I've read this tips many times, but it still doesn't work..