Address Bar Updates - Now Live in Firefox Nightly

[cbellini]

Exciting Updates to the Firefox Address Bar: Get Nightly and Test Them Now!Hello Firefox community! We're excited to share the latest updates to the Firefox Address Bar! These new features aim to improve your search browsing experience by making it faster, more intuitive, and easier to discover tools you already love. Whether you're a long-time Firefox user or exploring its capabilities for the first time, we’ve got something that’ll enhance your web experience. What’s New:

• Unified Search Button: A new, easy-to-access button in the address bar helps you switch between search engines and search modes with ease. This feature brings the simplicity of mobile Firefox to your desktop experience
• Search Term Persistence: Now when you refine a search in the address bar, the original term sticks around, making it easier to adjust your queries and find exactly what you're looking for
• Secondary Action Buttons: Ever needed to access more options for a specific result? These buttons allow for a streamlined experience, whether you're switching tabs or performing quick browser actions—all without disrupting your workflow
• Intuitive Search Keywords: You can access various address bar search modes with convenient and descriptive keywords (e.g. @bookmarks,@tabs,@history, @actions).
• HTTP As the Exception: For a more secure web experience, we'll now display the HTTP protocol prominently, so you know when you're on a non-secure site, while HTTPS will be hidden to reduce clutter.

How Does This Benefit You?

For our long-term Firefox users who appreciate the balance between power and simplicity, these updates give you more control and smoother navigation without overwhelming your current browsing setup.

For newer users, especially those looking for intuitive, fast-paced productivity, these features ensure you can search, switch, and perform tasks quickly, all while keeping privacy and user choice at the forefront. Your Feedback Shapes Firefox!

We’re inviting you to test these features in Firefox Nightly and share your thoughts. Whether you love how easy it is to switch search engines or have ideas for what’s next, your feedback will help us refine and perfect these features before their full release.

Join the conversation and let us know how we can continue building a better Firefox—one that respects your preferences, enhances your productivity, and keeps you in control.We invite you to join the discussion and help us shape the future of Firefox Search.

When sharing feedback, we'd also love to know:

• How long have you used Firefox?
• Is Firefox your default browser?

Happy browsing!

— The Firefox Search Team

[Agentvirtuel]

Hello

Take a look at
https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/address-bar-updates-now-live-in-firefox-nightly/m-p/87525...
https://www.camp-firefox.de/forum/thema/139559-suchbegriff-statt-der-url-in-der-adressleiste-wenn-ma...
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1521531

[eatbuckshot]

On 140.0.4 (64-bit)

One thing I noticed is if i set "browser.urlbar.scotchBonnet.enableOverride" to false and true, but also uncheck the "actions" search engine, it cannot be checked again and in some series of steps just disappears from the list of choosable search engines .

Aside from that though, I'm glad I have found out about "browser.urlbar.scotchBonnet.enableOverride" as I've been using the old horizontal search icon bar as a means to quickly search among tabs.

With the new vertical drop down and search icon (scotchBonnet) feature, it requires too many keystrokes with modifiers to get to the search tab function.

With scotchBonnet disabled:

1. Ctrl + E (2 keys simultaneously)
2. Up arrow (3x times or 2x times if History is unchecked in search engines)
3. Begin typing query for tabs

With it enabled:

1. Ctrl + E (2 keys simultaneously)
2. % (shift + 5, 2 keys simultaneously)
3. Space bar (switches to "Tab" search engine)
4. Backspace (2x times)
5. Begin typing query for tabs

this results in an overall increase of 2 keystrokes being pressed: combo key press (2x keys shift+5)
but also in terms of unique keys pressed:
--New--
ctrl: 1
e: 1
Shift: 1
5: 1
backspace: 2

--old--

ctrl: 1
e: 1
up: 3 (or 2)

It is in my experience easier to triple tap or double tap uparrow than it would be to have to move both hands around to use two different modifier combo keys (going from ctrl+e to shift+5)

Ctrl+L could be used to reduce the backspace keystroke, but it also requires two hands to perform

----

Of course even the original workaround with the up arrowing to get to tab search has been a huge workaround.

As mentioned in this 3 year old thread, https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/ideas/keyboard-shortcut-for-quot-search-tabs-quot/idi-p/9134/page/4#c... Why isn't there a dedicated shortcut key, or a way to at least configure it when chrome has had it for some time or the "fast tab switcher" has had it (ctrl+space). The search engines doesn't even allow customization of the default shortcut "%" for it.. shift+5 is simply too awkward to press after pressing other modifier key combinations.

[rifaz_j]

Everytime I have to use new lacking url bar, I feel baffled how it even got across QA. It doesn't even list my custom search engines that I had added before. How is this not a regression? I think I sound frustrated and that would be quite right. This frustration is an amalgamation of all the times that I got smacked on my head for expecting it to provide me the UX and User Satisfaction that is used to.