Firefox 3 'awesome bar' not awesome for all
(Credit: CNET Networks)There's no better way to incur user wrath than to change one of the fundamental features of a product. Apple's been doing it for years with each revision, usually prompting a positive cheer from most while alienating a certain margin of its fervent user base that vows to never buy or use the product again. Browser maker Mozilla is not without its own minority that appears to be up in arms about the updated address bar.
The Smart Location Bar, dubbed the "awesome bar" by the company, drops in a mix of your bookmarks and browser history as you type. For example, if you've got CNN.com bookmarked, or have visited it in the past, simply typing in a "C" would drop down a stream of links with some of the most relevant or highly visited sites rising to the top. It's been designed as a time-saver, but a group of users have come down on the new feature because it can't be turned off easily and has a quirky habit of putting some links in front of others.
Reader Jim points us toward this post on Mozilla Links about the feature back in the second beta that has accumulated nearly 300 user comments. Notice the date though (November 2007), and the latest comment was just a few minutes ago. Most of the comments praise the new feature, while some power users are complaining about the structuring of the links and want the option to disable bookmarks as part of the equation.
Similar threads exist in Mozilla's own community forums, although most quibbles are linked up to Mozilla's knowledge base articles which show how to tweak and edit certain features step-by-step.
There are, in fact, several ways to disable this feature entirely. One way is to follow the instructions on this page, which involves a small tweak to your about:config file. Doing so will disable the drop-down of links completely, but not your auto fill. There's also an add-on extension that mimics the behavior of the address bar found in Firefox 2 with slightly smaller favicons, link text, and sorting.
Josh Lowensohn is an associate editor for Webware.com, CNET's blog about cool and otherwise useful Web applications and services. If you've found a site you'd like profiled, shoot him an e-mail. E-mail Josh.
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Just to give an example of how 'awesome' the bar actually is, if I want to logon to Orkut.com, I enter 'o' in the address bar and lo...behold....*www.orkut.com* is the first entry to appear in the drop down list. Similar is the case with many of my other favorite sites. The bar actually 'knows' which websites you like the most and 'learns'. (I understand it has something to do with an SQL database underneath).
Regards,
Dexter_Greycells.
The poll here "so far" says "Hate it" winning "Love it", by 13%.
This is defintely something I won't use.
Personally, I welcome innovation. And I have stuck with the new bar for weeks hoping to get used to it and appreciate its awesomeness. But I don't. It simply isn't an improvement for me and the way I like to use the browser.
I don't want to deny the new bar to anyone who likes it. But I would like it to be readily configurable - to the extent that you can choose to use either the original (FF2) algorithm or the new one.
Guess the world is not as round as it seems...!
But, you should be able to shut it off if it grates on the nerves.
The best features are the ones that can be tailored to the user's tastes.
That way you can please all the people. Some people say to heck with the 5%. Well if a million people are using Firefox (and I'm sure there are a lot more than that), then 5% is 50 thousand people... that's a lot of people.
That way you can please all the people. Some people say to heck with the 5%. Well if a million people are using Firefox (and I'm sure there are a lot more than that), then 5% is 50 thousand people... that's a lot of people.
1: (E-mail from Mozilla) We've got enough anecdotal evidence that the new location bar changes, while sometimes jarring, represent a major net win for all users, once they get used to the changes. It is not a zero-cost change, but the benefits appear to be substantial enough that we're willing to force the issue.
My take, that is they admit that some users don't like but that they are forcing the issue because they think it better.
2:(E-mail from Mozilla) Experienced software engineers and HCI experts are able to build a better product than users would choose to build themselves.
My take, Their the experts, they have Engineering Degrees so there for they will tell you what you like.
My question to Mozilla is, why is it too much to ask for to have the option to disable this feature.? As far as FF 2 you can disable searches from the address bar, by un-checking remember what i type in address bar found in privacy options. You can also disable searches in Microsoft's IE 6, 7 and in 8 beta. Again Mozilla what is so wrong with having the option to disable the address bar feature?
Thanks
Jim
What I hate about it is sometimes it crashes or holds up or freezes or really slows down the browser.
If they fix that problem then I will no longer have a love/hate relationship with it, but a love/love relationship with it
I use to open most sites by typing the first 2 or 3 letters of the site, and the right sight would be first on the list.
Now, since it matches ANYWHERE in the url AND title, it is completely random what comes up.
The order also is not alphabetic, but instead sorted by what you used last. That means you always get some sub-page, rather than the front page, and almost all the time when you go to a site, you want the front page, and not the sub-pages that you already looked at.
Worst of all is that they didn?t even provide an option where you can chose if you want FF2 behavior.
For this reason alone, I will switch back to IE.
That means the front page will never be the last on you visited, although it is almost always the first one you want to visit next time.
Now the FF3 url bar will ALWAYS give the the sub-pages as results instead of the front page, because they will always be the last ones that you visited.
It actually forces you to type the complete url now. It is impossible to make it bring up the front page of a website, unless the front page is the only page you have even visited.
The only thing it is good for now, is url history SEARCH, which really should belong in the url history window. For just typing your regular url's and getting them quickly, it is now completely useless.
(My video doesn't explain *why* Safari's bar is better, it only shows an example)
Furthermore, I work for an interactive agency, and we have dozens of sites that have a development, staging, and production set of urls. I frequently need to switch between these. Instead of typing the first few letters and seeing all 3 pop up below me to choose from, and nothing else, I get a dozen irrelevant links until I type in a significant part of the url. The naming strategy we use produces lengthy domain names that are very annoying when I'm required to type the whole thing in.
An earlier beta of 3 allowed the choice between the old and new behavior, but the current version only supports the new behavior. Which, to me, means I will never be upgrading to 3. It's open-source software, so maybe someone will start a branch that doesn't do it, or has two url bars, one awesome and one useful, or anything that doesn't waste large amounts of my time.
For the way I use a browser, it is a total annoyance.
I also get tired of the argument that it is wrong to resist change, or that change is inevitable. Not all change is good. Three-wheeled cars anyone? I remember when they were praised as the next best thing, and that the pathetic 5% that complained about them were just "resistant to change." Until we finally figured out that it really was a stupid idea.
You live life in a little bubble, and now you have to type a few more letters in the address bar than you use to. You must be so important and busy that you don't have those extra seconds to spare. Remember, "diversity makes the world go 'round" and "you can't please everybody all the time". What you think slows you down, speeds me up. My browser usage is better in FF3 than it ever was in FF2. It speeds up all of Internet usage.
Get over it... I always test before moving to the next version of software... I kept FF2 on my system and backed up my profile incase it was altered by FF3, but after using it for like 5 minutes, I deleted FF2. In fact, the new address bar was the PRIMARY reason I decide to upgrade to FF3.
Firefox is free... you didn't pay for it and Mozilla is not required to care what you think. It is their program and they can design it any way they like. I run an online subscription service, and it utilizes a flash/web interface to create their projects... I redesigned the whole thing the way I knew it would be easier to use than the old interface. Some of my customers don't like it and want me to go back to the old interface, but too bad. Change is not for everyone, but it is what is good for the masses that out weights what is good for the few... Most of my customers couldn't be happier with the changes I made, but all I can do is apologize to the few and basically say that they can either accept it or move on to another company, because this is the direction we are going. If all you Microcrap Windblows users can't hack it, then go back to Internet Exploder and quick crying!
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by Kakkoister
June 19, 2008 10:08 PM PDT
- For people who want the old Location Bar back. Here is an add-on for it.
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Reply to this comment
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See all 39 Comments >>https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/7637
It's quite close to replicating the old Location Bar. Future updates to the add-on should make it almost identical.