Re: Address bar searches (was: epiphany-list gnome org)

[Kristoffer Lundén <kristoffer lunden gmail com>]

I am a poweruser. I use a browser continiously for several hours each
day. Some of it is because of web development, but that was mainly in
earlier years, now it is mostly a work tool. I search and research,
communicate, manage documents and documentation, read and write in all
possible forms throughout a normal workday. It is *the* one
application I need and use.

So, I want and need to have as few bumps and as many effective
shortcuts and useful features as possible - doesn't mean I want *many*
features, quite the opposite, but I do need the features that are to
be streamlined and effective.

So, of course I'm happy when I find a browser that is under
development, for my selected platform and that already seems to have
understood parts of this effectiveness.

And now I'm sad, because it seems to have become forgotten again.
Maybe I'm missing something, but now it seems that very strange
descisions and defaults are entered into the process without due
thought - like making a typed word default to www.theword.com - that
is rarely useful or yields the expected result (try it yourself).

So, of course I'm protesting. And I'll outline how I think this should
work, and why.

First, I'd like to address this:

On 9/4/05, Adam Hooper <adamh densi com> wrote:
> First of all, read <http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=158486>.
> The original behavior was a privacy violation (with a dash of corporate
> favouritism) which is certainly a more critical bug (albeit, probably
> for fewer people). If the choice is only between enabling and disabling
> the auto-search, disabling is unquestionably the right thing to do.
[...]
> It boils down to this: automatically sending typos and other accidental
> phrases to a for-profit company beyond GNOME's control is Wrong. It's
> evil. Taking that into account, we must think up a better way of
> handling searches. It'll take creativity: no browser I've seen has done
> a good job of it.

"Evil"? Come on. Favoritism maybe, and for the privacy concerned it
might be uncomfortable, but calling it Evil is a bit rich.

I might agree with you though, if it wasn't for the fact that a huge
percentage of all web browsing goes via Google anyways - having to
jump through hoops to get there (going manually to the site, using
separate bars, having to press down/up arrows like in old obsolete
Mozilla suite...) is just awful and hindering for someone who does
this a lot.

And: everyone who is concerned enough about their privacy *will* check
preferences for settings to turn off, that's why that proposed
solution was so much better. Give them the ability to not auto-search,
everyone is happy.

The only way around Google is if there were any good alternatives. And
I'm all in favour for having *where* to search configurable. You could
even have several available choices, including Yahoo, MSN and "none"
and pop a question first time browser is started. Now that is
providing choice, and being honest up front.

What I really would want is a Unified and Smart Location Bar(TM). That
is, a location bar that takes any input and tries to make sense of it.
Most of this is already there (although now disabled) and with a few
final tweaks it could be extremely effective.

This would also allow for extra goodness such as being able to send
any selected text via context menu to Location bar and have it used as
a link when it's an unhyperlinked URL, or as a search when it's just
plain words. Any external application could send *anything* to
Epiphany for "web processing" and have it treated in a best
guess-manner. Such as when I select a few words in Gaim, I could do
context->send to Epiphany and have it do The Right Thing(TM) -
probably a search.

The location bar should:
* Look and see if the first word matches a keyworded search.
  * If it was only that word, go to matching non-search bookmark
  * If there's more, go to matching search bookmark.
  * Yep, I want double meanings for keywords in many cases, think
Wikipedia (which has a workaround instead).
* Look up any valid-looking input in DNS, and if there is a match, go there.
  * If the site does not respond, display error message and do not
search (remember, this is *after* DNS lookup ensuring the site
*should* exist)
* If there is no match in DNS, use the query as entered in the chosen
default search. Even if there is dots or special characters in the
input.

Why then do I want keyworded searches instead of matching on title,
search in bookmarks etc? Because then I can set it up with a minimum
of effort. There is no risk that another bookmark suddenly clashes
with my others, it's always obvious what is meant, because I have to
explicitly make it behave this way. Otherwise, I think we are looking
at lots of unexpected results and accompanying complaints/bug reports.

On top of all the wikipedia and different forum searches I've set up,
I am also planning to set up a simple system where I can easily enter
bugs, ticket, todos, notes etc by simply typing stuff like: CTRL-T
CTRL-L "bug ProjectName:Window crashes on exit" and have that filed as
a bug for project projectName. Of course, that's only a keyworded
bookmark to "http://url.tld/bugs/add/%s"; but this is high usability
for me.

And with a convenient context menu dialog like in FF, it's a breeze to
add the keywords.

I'll also argue that doing a search like this is what most people will
like and have use for. Consider how people use the web:

A complete rookie on everything web might enter an address she got
from someone, like www.somepetstore.com or simply entering some words
for what she wants to reach, ie "Pet Store Springfield". A list of
good matches appear. Good things happen all around.

A more savvy user either enters a full URL, or goes to Google to
search for "Pet Store Springfield". Might use a bookmark to go to
Google, but often not. Can be enlightened of more direct way to do it.
Good things happen eventually.

Power users already search, search, search all the time and either use
CTRL-K in FF or have tweaked setting to old Epiphany behaviour, use
keyworded bookmarks for common sites and searches and just
occassionally enters manual URLs - hell, I often search for
appropriate keywords rather than type a long URL, even if I do know
it. Good things again, all around.

Now, I wonder, what are the bad cases? When is something unwanted
happening here?


More from Adam Hopper:
> What's the easiest workaround? Create a smart bookmark to google.com
> (bookmark "http://www.google.com/search?q=%s";). When you type in an
> address, you can select that smart bookmark to perform the search: it
> shows up at the bottom of the auto-complete list. This has always
> worked, and it's nice because it lets you use many search engines.

This is the behaviour in the old Mozilla Suite and it's no wonder it
was not kept in FF. It's very awkvard to use, although I won't mind if
that is provided as an alternative for those who like it.

> How about a better fix? Well, if we could allow a keyboard shortcut to
> go to a smart bookmark field, we could bind "Ctrl-K" to a default
> "google" smart bookmark, as done in Firefox. I personally dislike that
> behavior, because I'm used to typing anything I want into the one, big
> "location" field. (In my experience, 90% of Firefox browsing sessions
> begin by typing a whole lot of words into that 10-character-wide field;
> and the Location bar is rarely -- if ever -- used.)

Completely agree. I've had FF set up in old Epiphany behaviour for at
least a year, and always remove that box completely from my interface.
Not a good solution.

> There are plans for a "keyword search" feature, too, like Galeon does.
> "gg some search terms", for instance. I'm not particularly fond of that
> idea, but I could live with it. It would be an extension.

This I use all the time, both for search and not. "bank" goes to my
bank, "mail" to my gmail account. "ggf" searches Garagegames forums,
"wp" searches Wikipedia, "swp" the Swedish Wikipedia, and so on. It's
absolutely excellent for "power surfing" if you will. No need to open
and navigate a bookmarks menu for things you do all the time. This is
also the one feature people always say "wow, cool" and start to use
when I tell them about it in FF. My only wish is that I could set the
same keyword for two URLs: search and non-search.


I hope there isn't some issues about trying hard not to be FF, so the
features that are good in it are ignored. That would be too bad,
because Firefox *is* a really good browser. It is possible to do a
better one, for sure, but not by throwing the baby out with the
bathwater.

Ok, now that was a longwinded letter alright. Sorry about that. I am
not trying to pick a fight - at least not for the purpose of fighting,
but I am very concerned about the direction Epiphany is taking. I
would extremely much want it to be as great as it can possibly be, and
I want to use it myself. So I'm a bit vehement about issues like
these, which I feel are going in the wrong direction. I hope you can
have some understanding. :)

Regards, Stoffe


-- 
Kristoffer Lundén
☎ 0704 48 98 77
✉ kristoffer lunden gmail com
ICQ: 618 289 83
http://www.gamemaker.nu/

Rediscover the web: http://getfirefox.com/