topic Re: FF 149.0 New search box behaviour in Discussions

FF 149.0 New search box behaviour

Emmes — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 20:36:25 GMT

Who thought it would be a great idea to change the search box?

Old setting: type in search phrase, klick on the wanted search engine icon -> Search is executed

New setting: type in search phrase, klick on the active icon, klick on wanted search engine icon, klick on the magnifying glass -> Search is executed?

Who thought this would be better? Three klicks instead of one! Or am I not thinking correctly?

Re: FF 149.0 New search box behaviour

Schnellinger — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 08:00:38 GMT

Same questions brought me here. Worst idea for a while. So why is that and how can I change it back to my decade old workflow?

Re: FF 149.0 New search box behaviour

Schnellinger — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 08:46:47 GMT

note to self: changing browser.search.widget.new to FALSE in about:config did the trick. Just hoping it stays that way.

Re: FF 149.0 New search box behaviour

Emmes — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 11:44:58 GMT

I'm afraid that it will not be a permanent feature to have both options, and one day we all will have to accept the new, st*pid version! 😒

Re: FF 149.0 New search box behaviour

Kuni — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 23:02:00 GMT

Adding my voice to this as well for a different reason. Why the hell would you remove ctrl up/down to scroll your search engines?????

Re: FF 149.0 New search box behaviour

PaulFirefoxUX — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 21:19:17 GMT

Alt up/down now does the same thing

Re: FF 149.0 New search box behaviour

PaulFirefoxUX — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 21:19:27 GMT

Hello!

I'm a Firefox UX designer, new on the Search & Suggest team (these design changes were made before I joined the team).

The old version was removed as the default because it caused issues for accessibility. (i.e. problems for people who physically can’t use a mouse and have no choice but to use an alternative navigation method).
I'm keen to learn what could be improved about the new design that could make it as good as – or even better – than the old version for everybody.

In the new version, you can press alt-downarrow to open the list of search engines, and type the first letter of a search engine to select it.

Could you go into more detail about anything else that made the old version better for you, and how you would use it?

What is it that you'd miss? The icons being visible by default? The icons not having labels? The icons being shown in a grid? The keyboard shortcuts? How many search engines do you have listed?

If the new menu could show a grid of icons instead of a list, and somehow be pinned open by default (not in its current position of course) then would that help?

I’m here to listen to your feedback and take it back to the team to advocate for your needs. I can’t get it reverted, but I can make other changes.

And again, I wasn’t on the team when this was designed so I’d appreciate your help to make this work better for you.

Thanks!

Re: FF 149.0 New search box behaviour

Emmes — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 22:06:05 GMT

I have 37 search engines listed, and I use them only in the search box. It's very easy to use Ctrl+K, type in the search phrase and directly klick the search engine I want, e. g. IMDB for a movie or Discogs for music. Instead of klicking I can use the cursor keys down and up to select the search engine and just press Enter.

The new design needs much more klicks and/or keys to be pressed. I wouldn't mind having both designs, so the user can choose the one they want.

Or if the new design would also show the grid while you type the search phrase and you would only need one mouse klick, it would be the same as the old one. That's what I (we all?) love about the old design! 🙂

Re: FF 149.0 New search box behaviour

Schnellinger — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 09:19:15 GMT

"The old version was removed as the default because it caused issues for accessibility. (i.e. problems for people who physically can’t use a mouse "

That makes no sense at all. With the old version I only need my keyboard, with the new version I have to switch to the mouse to make superflous clicks

Re: FF 149.0 New search box behaviour

BlueSnivyian — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 10:24:28 GMT

Stop lying and just revert the **bleep** UI already. You can clearly see how mad everyone is by how many posts there are, so why do you choose to ignore it and lie about what you "can" or "can't" do?

Honestly, your PR team must love you guys working on the UI considering you are giving them free headaches for who knows how many months! How kind of you.

Re: FF 149.0 New search box behaviour

Emmes — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 19:22:35 GMT

If it’s better for people with disabilities or is done for accessibility reasons, that’s fine for them. But for everyone else, things have gotten worse. So please be sure to keep the old version as an alternative.

After all, you wouldn’t make a color setting for people with red-green color blindness the default for everyone and then remove the normal setting as well. Well-intentioned, but poorly implemented.

Re: FF 149.0 New search box behaviour

PaulFirefoxUX — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 19:26:04 GMT

No worries, that's why I'm here – to find out how we can improve the implementation for you (but not to keep the old version as an alternative as that would double the maintenance workload for the engineering team for this feature).

Re: FF 149.0 New search box behaviour

PaulFirefoxUX — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 19:26:59 GMT

37! That's a lot. You definitely need a grid and not a list! Don't worry, I'm on the case.

Do you know about setting keywords for search engines? Like if you type 'w beatles' then it will search for 'beatles' on Wikipedia. No need to manually pick a search engine from a list first. You can create your own shortcuts in Settings > Search.You'd definitely benefit from setting some of those up!

Re: FF 149.0 New search box behaviour

PaulFirefoxUX — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 19:37:09 GMT

We need to do a better job of making the keyboard shortcuts discoverable. It's on my list!

You can open the search engines list and cycle through the list with alt + down-arrow.

Or press the first letter of any search engine to jump to it.

In a near-future release that will be enough to run the search, but today you need to press enter to select it and then enter again to run the search. These 2 steps will be removed soon.

The accessibility issue in the previous version was that for keyboard users the icons would get in their way as they used the keyboard to navigate through to other options. So what made it easy for you made it hard for them.

I realise that the first version of the new version breaks your workflow, but that's why I'm here – to learn what people need so that we can make changes and improve it.

Thanks for sharing your frustrations!

Re: FF 149.0 New search box behaviour

PaulFirefoxUX — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 19:46:43 GMT

Hi BlueSnivyian

I'm a UX designer so I don't have access to the code, and unfortanately wouldn't know how to revert it even if I did.

I have no incentive to lie, I'm not part of some very niche conspiracy 😂 You can see from my other posts in other threads that we're already making the exact changes that many people are requesting.

The number of posts from people who dislike it is not as many as the number of users who have been able to discover the alternative search engines feature in its new location. Part of why the team moved it was because so many people just didn't see it in its old location. The data shows that alternative search engine use has increased significantly since the same change was made in the address bar last year (of course, for privacy we can't see any search data, or who's using it, just total numbers).

Which specific part of it breaks your workflow? Maybe it's something we're already looking to fix… I'm here to listen if you keep it civil!

Re: FF 149.0 New search box behaviour

BlueSnivyian — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 23:35:18 GMT

Dude…"I have no incentive to lie" and you literally just lied. Almost every new post here has been about the new changes in both versions of Firefox and how they don't like it and want to revert.

Everything I say would just be an echo of everything already said about the new changes. So I simply ask, WHY can't we just have a easily accessible toggle that removes all the new changes? It was completely fine, usable, and still in before the update, so why are we now forced to change? And don't say "because maintaining two UI would be too much work" people that want the old UI don't want changes, so you wouldn't have to do anything to the old UI. Just implement a easily accessible toggle (not hidden behind any special options) and say that "Classic UI may not have all features available." Other applications have done so with very minimal issues, why can't it be done here?

Re: FF 149.0 New search box behaviour

TechHorse — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 04:44:42 GMT

Hello Paul. I have been Trying out the new version of the search box, and here are some thoughts as a keyboard user.

----
First, thanks to whoever decided to stop the dropdown list and search engine options automatically opening when the keyboard focus first enters the edit field.

I can understand why a list would open as soon as the edit field is clicked on, as the mouse user has clearly indicated that they wish to interact with the clicked-on element.

But keyboard users can, as you have already suggested, just be tabbing their way through UI elements to get to a specific one. Or press the search box's hotkey to focus it simply as a stepping stone that is near to the target element.

So pleased to see that now the list does not expand and the search buttons do not appear until the keyboard user has made a clear indication that they wish to interact with them. By pressing alt+down for example.

I know that mouse users like to cut to the chase, so maybe if the edit box is clicked on then the search options list could open immediately? whereas keyboard users would still need to perform a clear action such as shift+tabbing to the button and pressing space, or start typing into the box, before the dropdowns open?

Then mouse users can just type a string then click on the desired search engine straight away. As the list would have appeared as soon as the search box was clicked on.

However, keyboard users who were just passing through can move on quickly without having extra lists to negotiate past. As again, these won't have appeared as the user did nothing to summon them?

In a nutshell:

Clicking on either the edit field or search options button opens the search dropdown.

Pressing alt+up / down, tabbing to the search options button and pressing it, or typing some characters into the field also does this.

But no other actions open the list?

---
I've noticed that unlike with the address bar, the search bar remembers the last used search engine for as long as the window is open.

I can see why there might be some value in that, as a user could run several consecutive searches with a non-default provider without having to keep selecting it.

But I do not use the alternatives that often personally, and even then, it might be a one-off or two-off etc. I would prefer to not have to stop and think about what mode the search box is currently in. I just want it to run a default search unless if I tell it otherwise.

Is this possible?

----
This is an issue regarding changing the search engine keywords. I find having to type entire words such as "@google" and "@wikipedia" a bit cumbersome, and would like to shorten them. But I can't figure out how to change them using only the keyboard? If anyone knows a method that does not involve clicking, please let me know.

----

This is a screen reader accessibility issue. With the previous version of the search box my screen reader would say something like 'search with [current selected provider]' when the search box was first focused. With this update it does not announce the provider.

This was not unique to the search box, as the address bar also sees the selected provider read out.

So I am hoping that some text or labelling that was present in the previous version culd be re-added without too much effort?

Thanks for reading.

Re: FF 149.0 New search box behaviour

no11 — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 06:31:44 GMT

Sure sounds like you should revert to the original code and stop whining how much "better" the new UI is then. If everyone is telling you it sucks, it's not a good thing to just go, "Well it's better for [irrelevant edge case] so deal with it."

Re: FF 149.0 New search box behaviour

PaulFirefoxUX — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 10:26:39 GMT

The number of posts from people who dislike it is not as many as the number of users who have been able to discover the alternative search engines feature in its new location. Part of why the team made this change was because so many people just didn't see the alternative search engines in their old location. The data shows that alternative search engine use has increased significantly since the same change was made in the address bar last year (of course, for privacy we can't see any search data, or who's using it, just total numbers).

I'm clearly not saying "so deal with it" – I wouldn't even be looking here if I that was my attitude, let alone replying! I am here seeking to understand what people miss about the old version, so we can improve the new version. 👍

Re: FF 149.0 New search box behaviour

TechHorse — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 18:05:34 GMT

no11, I am not sure if you were intending to describe an accessibility consideration as an "irrelevant edge case". But Mozilla themselves say that they are working "to keep the Web open, public and accessible to all". Apologies if this is not what you meant.

That said, I suggested a possible approach for the automatic opening of the search list previously in this thread:
* If the user clicks on the search edit box then the list of search options automatically opens.
* If the user starts typing into the search edit box then the list of search options automatically opens.

This way, the list only automaticly opens if the user has taken a positive action to indicate an interest in searching. Whereas keyboard users who were just tabbing through UI elements and land on the search box, or who pressed its hotkey simply because it is near to the element that they wish to tab to, won't have unwanted newly opened lists and buttons to negotiate past.

The point I am making here, is that unless if I am missing something obvious, it doesn't need to be an either / or choice between accessibility for keyboard-only users and convenience for mouse users.

P.S. I am aware that they did not change things purely for the sake of keyboard accessibility. But the better discoverability of the search engines in their new location should also not be negatively affected by the list's automatic opening when the search box is clicked .on or typed in.

So again, it doesn't have to be an either / or choice between better discoverability and convenience for mouse users.

Re: FF 149.0 New search box behaviour

TechHorse — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 21:27:47 GMT

Just a tip for those who want to quickly deselect the currently selected engine. Press esc a few times and this will clear the text in the field then restore the default engine. Although, of course, this is not the method to use if you want to keep the entered text.

Re: FF 149.0 New search box behaviour

TechHorse — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 21:37:13 GMT

Paul, further to my first post on this thread where I listed several observations as a keyboard user, I'd like to mention another regarding the need for an unnecessary extra key press.

If you press alt+down while in the edit field then the list of search options visually expands, but the keyboard focus does not transfer to the list until you press alt+down a second time.

This means that if you were typing text and want to search with the 3rd listed search engine, then you would need to press alt+down four times. Once to visually open the list, another to enter the list (at engine #1), then another two to get to engine #3.

Whereas if the first alt+down was to both open and enter the list immediately, then clearly only three presses of alt+down would be required to go from text writing to arriving at the desired search provider.

What I have described also happens when you tab to the button and press space. The list visually expands but you still need to press down once to actually enter the list, before you can begin arrowing to your wanted option.

Lastly, the above also applies to the search dropdown list of the address bar. So a seemingly redundant extra key press could possibly be removed there too?

Re: FF 149.0 New search box behaviour

BlueSnivyian — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 10:13:27 GMT

Never got that answer to this.

Re: FF 149.0 New search box behaviour

PaulFirefoxUX — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 12:53:47 GMT

Keep it civil and I will consider your feedback. I'm not here for your accusations of lying, my friend. I may not always have all the information (new on the team), but to lie would be to intentionally mislead, which is not what I'm doing at all.

As I'm sure you've seen from other comments, there's still a config setting to use the old UI.

I will recommend that we don't remove that config setting until the new design meets the same needs as that old design.