You can now perform actions like “clear history,” “open downloads,” or “take a screenshot” just by typing into the address bar.
They’ve reinvented the command line.
Yep, just like all those command palette apps like Alfred, Raycast, and inside VS Code.
Yet they call this the simpler bar, huh?
Command line is the definition of simple. It’s not easy, but it is simple: you type a command and it runs the command, that’s it. Knowing what commands to run is what makes is it difficult, but the interface is incredibly simple.
I mean… it would be simpler if it didn’t run any commands.
I think the point is that the UI of the bar wasn’t really more complicated before. So it’s not like the bar itself has really gotten any simpler. Specially if they aren’t removing the previous ways to access those functions.
That said, I do like the idea.
Now every time I see the word smarter from firefox, I’m afraid they’ll add some AI somewhere new. Glad it wasn’t the case here.
… that I didn’t ask for and that you probably won’t let me turn off. Thanks for nothing.
Can we have a dropdown menu like we had in the 2000s?
Not sure why we decided removing the scrollbar and only showing the top 8 entries was a good idea.
You can increase the number of items shown by bumping up the
browser.urlbar.maxRichResultssetting inabout:config.But you won’t get a scrollbar even if you bump it till it goes beyond the height of your screen.
This is ridiculous. I like the way it’s set up now. They tried “simpler” before and I hated it and turned it off. Along with the news they’re supposedly getting rid of tags for bookmarks (I have so many bookmarks without tags they’d be useless) I’m just feeling so much despair for the web right now.
Also disabling showing HTTPS in the address bar as part of the URL is another negative change catering to what they believe is the lowest common denominator. Consider for a moment that browsers still support multiple protocols besides hypertext transfer.
Consider for a moment that browsers still support multiple protocols besides hypertext transfer.
When the protocol is not https, then it will show it. In fact, it will show if the page is http and not https.
The lock icon (the one showing certificate information when clicked) only shows when the page is https, so essentially that icon replaces the
https://
I love how the top two points, “Choose how you search, right from the address bar” and “Keep your original search visible” are things that we always had by default in the old days with the separate search bar, until Firefox blindly copied Chrome and went to the unified bar.
And now it’s back as if it’s some kind of revolutionary feature, rather than they made it worse and now they’re making it better again.
Not that I ever stopped using the separate search field, I always turn that on.
unpopular opinion: firefox copied chrome because the unified bar is simply better. the separate search field always felt like clutter to me even before i used chrome
Never understood why you’d keep a separate search bar next to the search bar
I guess some of us just like to think the search bar and the address bar are conceptually different interface elements with different reasons to exist.
