5 ms·

The no setting part is not really an option. No matter how simple you want to the browser to be, if you want this to be the one browser for the personal use, yo

by yeukhon 12y ago

The no setting part is not really an option. No matter how simple you want to the browser to be, if you want this to be the one browser for the personal use, you need some settings. * setting search engine - this should be dead simple to implement and totally should be customized. I don't mind using Google but some people just don't like that. Actually I don't get why Firefox search engine customization is the way it is. If you want to SE that is not part of Firefox's bundle choices, you have to install add-on. To me, this should be simple to implement. A user click on "manage search engine preference", press "Add", gives a URL of the search engine (e.g. https://google.com https://google.com) and then OK. Firefox should just take whatever user types into the search bar / address bar (this case needs to know whether the "keyword" is url or not) and just redirect user to http://mysearch-engine.com/?q= http://mysearch-engine.com/?q= / ?query=. I can even imagine this useful when I want firefox to do code search. Imagine instead of me going to dxr.mozilla.org to find the code I want, now I just need to set the search engine to http://dxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/search?= http://dxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/search?= yay! I can even write an addon that does that right now in probably 30-50 lines of JS right now. * home page. I think many older Internet users still set a home page. * Download folders - you still want to expose where to set it because some people prefer to set it somewhere else. * Bookmarks - if there is no concept of bookmark, how exactly do I find the things I want quickly? Imagine I <3 a bunch of stuff today and tomorrow I want to find that one awesome blog post I want to re-read. If I can't recall the blog title or the domain, how do I do search? What really helps users, including me, when I just want a browser. * security, private, clear cookies - awesome, lightspeed would be super awesome on shared computers * Big buttons. When I first install Lightspeed I should just be prompted a couple pages with big buttons and bars to set homepage / search engine preference * When I <3 a bookmark, fade in search bar or show me a page with big list of bookmark categories. And personally, a little cuteness like the wireframe in the demo is always welcome. See these scratch drawing 1 and 2. I am not a designer, so pardon me. I am also trying to do a mobile experience here. In the bookmark case, you can type, you can mouse over / click and expand to see the top 5 in that category. [1]: http://imgur.com/Bvtrnhi&WjAoic8 http://imgur.com/Bvtrnhi&WjAoic8 [2]: http://imgur.com/Bvtrnhi&WjAoic8#1 http://imgur.com/Bvtrnhi&WjAoic8#1 And yes, as a developer, Lightspeed is awesome to me.

userbinator 12y ago
No matter how simple you want to the browser to be, if you want this to be the one browser for the personal use, you need some settings. Words cannot express how much I agree with this, and the frustration of finding out that some new version has removed an option I had before. I'd like to point out that the Firefox page description is (emphasis mine): "Firefox is created by a global non-profit dedicated to putting individuals in control online." If they really want to go with the no settings idea, maybe Lightspeed's description should instead be "Lightspeed is created by a global non-profit dedicated to putting Mozilla in control online."
thrownaway2424 12y ago
I think the easiest way to change search engine is to expose some UI when you browse to that site. For example if you go to google.com there could be a little dingus in the address bar that you click to make that your search engine. I'm stealing this idea from Chrome, which already does that, somehow. If you go to a webmail site, there's a thing on the right of the omnibox, just left of the star, and if you click it that place becomes your mailto: url handling site. As for search engines, Chrome has IMHO the dead-easiest way to install these of all. You only have to have gone to the site once. After that you get tab shortcuts for searching on that engine. There is a UI, but I've never seen or used it because why would you need to?
- yeukhon 12y ago
  I don't remember if setting search via click had ever been done, but certainly when I was a kid (10-12 years ago), I vaguely remember when I visited sites like Yahoo, there would be an underlined text that read "click here to set this to be your homepage!" I don't remember if it was actually possible without user to confirm or not, but I supposed the security reason prevents that from happening today. The closest thing I can see is bookmarklet which is also very dangerous.
- glandium 12y ago
  Firefox does this already, if the web site has a <link rel="search">. Go, for example, to https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/ https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/, which I know has that, now click on the drop down to select a search engine, there's a 'Add "Bugzilla@Mozilla"' item. Sure, discoverability is left to be desired.

by yeukhon 12y ago

userbinator 12y ago

No matter how simple you want to the browser to be, if you want this to be the one browser for the personal use, you need some settings. Words cannot express how much I agree with this, and the frustration of finding out that some new version has removed an option I had before. I'd like to point out that the Firefox page description is (emphasis mine): "Firefox is created by a global non-profit dedicated to putting individuals in control online." If they really want to go with the no settings idea, maybe Lightspeed's description should instead be "Lightspeed is created by a global non-profit dedicated to putting Mozilla in control online."

thrownaway2424 12y ago

I think the easiest way to change search engine is to expose some UI when you browse to that site. For example if you go to google.com there could be a little dingus in the address bar that you click to make that your search engine. I'm stealing this idea from Chrome, which already does that, somehow. If you go to a webmail site, there's a thing on the right of the omnibox, just left of the star, and if you click it that place becomes your mailto: url handling site. As for search engines, Chrome has IMHO the dead-easiest way to install these of all. You only have to have gone to the site once. After that you get tab shortcuts for searching on that engine. There is a UI, but I've never seen or used it because why would you need to?

yeukhon 12y ago
I don't remember if setting search via click had ever been done, but certainly when I was a kid (10-12 years ago), I vaguely remember when I visited sites like Yahoo, there would be an underlined text that read "click here to set this to be your homepage!" I don't remember if it was actually possible without user to confirm or not, but I supposed the security reason prevents that from happening today. The closest thing I can see is bookmarklet which is also very dangerous.
glandium 12y ago
Firefox does this already, if the web site has a <link rel="search">. Go, for example, to https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/ https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/, which I know has that, now click on the drop down to select a search engine, there's a 'Add "Bugzilla@Mozilla"' item. Sure, discoverability is left to be desired.