epiphany-list gnome org

[Ryan Thiessen <ryanthiessen gmail com>]

In the recent bugreport over the change in address bar policy in
Epiphany, http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=314974, Reinout
correctly suggested that we move the discussion/debate here to
epiphany-list.

As I see this right now, the change from being able to quickly and
easily search from the address bar is a massive regression for three
groups.  Based on current defaults, new users will have to know to
enable the bookmark toolbar in order to see the "search the web"
bar.  People who are used to the current behaviour will type in
searches to the address bar and get an error page or dialog. Expert
users who rely on keyboard shortcuts to save time no longer have the
ctrl-L keyboard shortcut to get to a search bar, unless a
non-discoverable and undocumented about:config setting is changed from
the default.

To me it is extremely clear why this is reverted in order to address
the problems for all three user groups I identified,  and I simply
don't understand why this change is even being pondered.  But I
say this not to be hostile, I say this because I am legitimately
curious what the reasons are from people who support this change. 
If you support this change, I'd like to know how these three user
groups are supposed to be satisfied instead of moving to an alternative
browser.  

I can think of a few answers, none of them I find satisfactory. 
Perhaps some feel that web searching is overrated and that the two-step
procedure of typing in the browser url and then entering in the items
directly into the search engine is acceptable.  Perhaps some feel
that keyboard shortcuts to get to a web search are not really that
important because you don't do searching all that often.  Perhaps
some feel that inexperienced computer users who have been using
epiphany already will understand somehow why the address bar doesn't
search anymore.  That's all I can think of, what am I missing?

It is my opinion that if a major change like this is to be done with
the default behaviour of Epiphany, it ought to be done carefully as to
minimize the impact to the users.  If the keyboard shortcut bug
for smart bookmarks was filled, and a clearly marked search box was
placed on the toolbar by default after Peter Harvey's patch is
implemented, that would be a different story.  In this case,
inexperienced computer users (both old and new to ephy) could see that
there is a new way of searching the web in Epiphany, and will be less
confused by the change.  Expert users could use a new keyboard
shortcut and search the web quickly.  In this hypothetical case,
in my opinion the change in default policy would be managed acceptably.

But if I am missing something, my mind is not closed on this.  Can
someone in favour of changing the behaviour speak up and explain how
these users are expected to manage the change if the present behaviour
is continued to the Gnome release.
-- 
Cheers,
-Ryan Thiessen-