Re: firefox user trying out epiphany looking for bookmarks toolbar

[Matthew Thomas <mpt myrealbox com>]

On 3 November, 2005, Reinout van Schouwen wrote:
> On Wed, 2 Nov 2005, Matthew Thomas wrote:
> > First, there is only one thing in Epiphany's Bookmarks Bar by 
> > default, and *it's not a bookmark*. At least, it's not a bookmark in 
> > the sense that anyone
>
> For what it's worth, the current 1.9 series doesn't distinguish 
> anymore between a regular toolbar and one that contains (smart) 
> bookmarks or topics.

I think that's another bad idea for much the same reason. It's 
conflating two things -- bookmarks and browser controls -- that should 
be separate.

> > who has used the Internet during the past ten years has come to 
> > understand and recognize bookmarks. And as much as you might marvel 
> > at the technical wizardry that lets a text field appear in the 
> > Bookmarks Bar, it still doesn't make sense.
>
> Even if you don't understand what the text field is supposed to do,
> clicking 'Search the Web' will take you to Google. Smart bookmarks are
> still bookmarks :-)

That is also surprising-in-a-bad-way, because it looks like a label.

> > So I think it might be time to bite the bullet and have a single
> > search field on the toolbar, like Firefox and Safari do. Besides 
> > being more obvious, this would have other benefits.
>
> Personally I'm not in favour of that. Typing in your query in the
> address bar already lets you select the search engine/online
> dictionary/whatever after you've typed your search text.

That's a good fallback for if you start typing in the wrong field by 
accident, but it isn't obvious as a way of starting a search.

> There are bugs open about showing favicons in the dropdown and about 
> supporting the mozilla sidebar addSearchEngine function to create 
> smart bookmarks. I expect that once these are implemented, we'll have 
> equivalent functionality without adding another interface element.

It's not about "equivalent functionality", it's about being obvious.

> Besides, using the main address bar has the advantage of being able to 
> see the complete query if your search text is longer than one or two 
> words.

True.

> > *   It gives you a single place to go to see your recent searches.
>
> I'd support the idea of remembering smart bookmark queries, but it 
> would have to be very easy to delete them from the autocomplete 
> widget, otherwise I think there would be big negative privacy 
> implications. (Accidentally seeing a URL visited by someone else is 
> one thing, seeing someone else's search queries is quite another!)

Only to the extent that 
"http://www.google.com/search?q=jewellery+gifts+in+Birmingham"; is 
harder to read than "jewellery gifts in Birmingham".

> ...
> In the other thread we're discussing the Add Bookmark dialogue, maybe 
> it should be considered there if a checkbox for adding a bookmark to 
> the toolbar is desirable. Also, if I'm not mistaken, the new toolbar 
> editor contains a 'Quick Bookmark' item that allows you to select a 
> bookmark from the menu to place on the toolbar once you drag the QB 
> item to the toolbar, would that be sufficient?
> ...

As above, I think conflating bookmarks with toolbar buttons is a 
mistake.

> > And third, the same problem occurs when editing bookmarks -- there
> > should be a "Bookmarks Bar" place in the editor where I can see all
> > the Bookmarks Bar bookmarks in one place, but there isn't.
>
> To be fair, all bookmarks in the bookmarks bar are plainly visible in
> the browser window itself.
> ...

That's no good for editing, unless you're one of those unusual people 
who uses the right mouse button. :-)

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