Re: what is the reason for not making epiphany the default

[Matthew Paul Thomas <mpt myrealbox com>]

On 28 Jan, 2006, at 3:36 AM, Adam Hooper wrote:
> On Fri, 2006-01-27 at 14:06 +0100, Reinout van Schouwen wrote:
> > Would it perhaps be an idea to relabel the 'Go' button to 'Search', 
> > and performing the same action when clicked as when the user had 
> > pressed enter after entering keywords? Only when something that looks 
> > like a valid URL was entered, the label would change to 'Go'.

That would mean whenever someone started entering an URL, the label 
would change to "Search" until they typed the first "." character. I 
think that would be quite distracting.

(Anyone remember Netscape 6? That had a "Search" button on by default 
and a "Go" button off by default, causing much confusion.)

> > I know, I know, changing button labels is generally not a good idea, 
> > but maybe just in this case it could work...
>
> In my experience, less technical users think they're "search"-ing when
> they type in a URL, anyway. I'd believe it if someone told me that
> leaving it as "Search" forever is the best way to go.
> ...

A close relative of mine habitually types URLs into Google's front 
page, and clicks on the resulting link. That's partly why I think any 
Web browser should have a Web search field in its chrome (at least, if 
the OS itself doesn't), instead of having a search engine as its 
default home page.

--
Matthew Paul Thomas
http://mpt.net.nz/