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Firefox 3 smart bar is just too smart

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Firefox 3 smart bar is just too smart

#51

Post by jonknee »

scw wrote: post #45
jonknee wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No it's not, it searches entire URLs, names, etc. So site.com/news will come up as well. I found the "awesome bar" entirely un-awesome as well.

No, it won't with the trailing '.' -- try it yourself, visit site.com/news and then search for 'news.'

But then you have to have the full domain, which is shitty. Defeats the purpose of having it search at all.

Re: Firefox 3 smart bar is just too smart

#52

Post by ralph »

mercury wrote: post #29

wat i hate happen is when i type in "p" it automatically goes to pornhub! m definitely not going to install ff3 in the computer down stairs.

Yes, someone on slashdot was complaining of this. He visited a pr0n site daily. Fine. However, now there's a good chance that site will flick by, two lines high, as he starts typing in the location bar before he gets too specific. He doesn't want to wipe his whole history, but nor does he want it appearing all the time. I can see his point. Just type `e' and the top match isn't specific to the very vague `e' but may be embarassing.

Re: Firefox 3 smart bar is just too smart

#53

Post by PieSquared »

bkrausz wrote: post #2

While I agree that there should be a way to disable the awesome bar, it's worth nothing that it does take some training and getting used to. The awesome bar uses historical data from previous searches, so if your search for "news" always ends with you clicking on HN, it will put that at the top. Over time, the bar will learn your preferences and become much more useful. I hated the bar at first, to the extent that I…

Me too - I used to dislike it, even installed the oldbar extension to disable it. Now though, I find it pretty useful: to get to HN, I can type just 'h'; to get to the Arc forum, I can just type an 'a'; It's saved me a many Google search, too, because I tend to remember webpage titles much better than their URLs for most things.

Re: Firefox 3 smart bar is just too smart

#54

Post by eru »

DaniFong wrote: post #41
bkrausz wrote: post #2

While I agree that there should be a way to disable the awesome bar, it's worth nothing that it does take some training and getting used to. The awesome bar uses historical data from previous searches, so if your search for "news" always ends with you clicking on HN, it will put that at the top. Over time, the bar will learn your preferences and become much more useful. I hated the bar at first, to the extent that I…

For what it's worth, I found it immediately intuitive, and thought it was a great design feature. I hope many others do too.

I did not really notice it, too. Only when I read that complaint.

Re: Firefox 3 smart bar is just too smart

#55

Post by ames »

What annoys me the MOST about the smartbar is that it doesn't always work. Example: I type in maps.google.com and hit enter. Nothing happens. I click the little green arrow. Nothing happens. I edit to include the http:// and still nothing happens. I have to search for google maps in the search box to get to the site. wtf?

Re: Firefox 3 smart bar is just too smart

#56

Post by nortexoid »

the super-wicked bar is a respectable addition. it works like just the all-hyped instant search technology (e.g. of google, copernic, etc.) by (instantly) finding any url (which includes descriptions) containing the relevant search phrase. it's super-wicked. and the greatest part is that it learns!

i could see why someone might want to disable it, but i find it supremely useful. i don't have to search through my history...the super-wicked bar does it automatically for it. it's like my whole history is instant-searchable in the url ("super-wicked") bar!

more and more software is continually making use of instant search technology (e.g. application launchers like Launchy), and it's a great thing indeed.

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