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Firefox address bar

wiki.tilde.institute

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Re: Firefox address bar

#251
post #49

The killer feature is that you can extend this with your own macros. E.g. if you want the address bar to recognize "hn " as a prefix keyword, and redirect "hn firefox address bar" to, say, Algolia — you simply create a bookmark with "Keyword": "hn" and "URL": " https://hn.algolia.com/?q=%s " (not actually a URL, don't click on it) – %s indicating where the macro parameter substitutes. Then "hn firefox address bar" ma…

This is Firefox's best kept secret. To this day I cannot fathom anyone willingly switching from Firefox to Chrome/Edge/any other Chromium-based browser. There are so many tiny features that are useful at least to myself, while a minor JavaScript performance advantage isn't something that important in the grand scale of things.

Another great thing that only seem to exist for Firefox is Tree Style Tab [1] and a bunch of plugins around it. It completely changes the way I browse.

There is an honest but much, much more limited attempt top bring a something similar to Chromium: [2].

[1]: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tree-style-ta...

[2]: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/tree-style-tab/oic...

Re: Firefox address bar

#252
post #196

It would be nice if the author could fix this page, since the examples are incorrect and do not work as written. You need a space after the magic character. Although I use it exactly as described (prefixing my search with the magic character followed by a space), it's not necessarily the best way to use it. If you can retrain your muscle memory, these shortcuts are better as suffixes. "% fish" will only show the open…

It works fine without spaces for me.

Whoa, you're right! I know it used to be a problem, since I told several people about the feature, they tried it, it didn't work, and when looking at it I realized they were leaving off the space (or I hadn't even mentioned it).

Err... I attempted to update my comment. I guess it was too old but I still had the page open with an edit link present?

And now I notice that multiple other people are reporting that they still need the space. Something smells buggy....

Re: Firefox address bar

#253
post #37

The killer feature is that you can extend this with your own macros. E.g. if you want the address bar to recognize "hn " as a prefix keyword, and redirect "hn firefox address bar" to, say, Algolia — you simply create a bookmark with "Keyword": "hn" and "URL": " https://hn.algolia.com/?q=%s " (not actually a URL, don't click on it) – %s indicating where the macro parameter substitutes. Then "hn firefox address bar" ma…

Similarly you can run javascript programs on a site with a parameter from the url bar, if you want. For example you can make a bookmark with the URL javascript: document.body.innerHTML = "%s" + document.body.innerHTML and add a keyword @addBefore and it will work. (Useless example, but it probably shows where and how the javascript runs.)

Now that’s awesome. Bookmarklets have felt largely useless to me since I got rid of the bookmarks bar outside of new tabs. This might make them useful again.

Re: Firefox address bar

#254
post #251
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is Firefox's best kept secret. To this day I cannot fathom anyone willingly switching from Firefox to Chrome/Edge/any other Chromium-based browser. There are so many tiny features that are useful at least to myself, while a minor JavaScript performance advantage isn't something that important in the grand scale of things.

Another great thing that only seem to exist for Firefox is Tree Style Tab [1] and a bunch of plugins around it. It completely changes the way I browse. There is an honest but much, much more limited attempt top bring a something similar to Chromium: [2]. [1]: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tree-style-ta... [2]: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/tree-style-tab/oic...

Is there a good way to hide the top tabs without getting into barely supported config files?

I like TST, but I gave up on it because I could never get the top tabs hidden correctly, and all the information I could find on the internet was different levels of out of date.

Re: Firefox address bar

#255
post #49

The killer feature is that you can extend this with your own macros. E.g. if you want the address bar to recognize "hn " as a prefix keyword, and redirect "hn firefox address bar" to, say, Algolia — you simply create a bookmark with "Keyword": "hn" and "URL": " https://hn.algolia.com/?q=%s " (not actually a URL, don't click on it) – %s indicating where the macro parameter substitutes. Then "hn firefox address bar" ma…

This is Firefox's best kept secret. To this day I cannot fathom anyone willingly switching from Firefox to Chrome/Edge/any other Chromium-based browser. There are so many tiny features that are useful at least to myself, while a minor JavaScript performance advantage isn't something that important in the grand scale of things.

>a minor JavaScript performance advantage

Consider just how many layers of JavaShit webdevs want to slap down on their websites these days, that "minor" performance difference adds up. Death by a thousand cuts, basically.

Re: Firefox address bar

#256
Apropos of nothing, except that it shows off that Firefox implements the OpenSearch spec correctly, here's a Wordle clone my friend Nolen built in Firefox's address bar:

https://eieio.games/nonsense/implementing-wordle-in-the-fire...

I hope it brings you the five minutes of delight that it brought me

Re: Firefox address bar

#257
post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm using Firefox right now. When I highlight in the bar and press tab, ONLY when the drop-down bar is showing, it moves the cursor down one to Amazon, which is not my default search engine, but the first one alphabetically. So that doesn't work. I also don't want to search my default search engine. I want tab to search for the panoply of websites that the omnibox will search. When I start typing ebay, I want "tab to…

> When I start typing ebay, I want "tab to search ebay". You can configure Firefox to do this with a single checkbox. Go to Settings, click Privacy & Security on the side, go down to the Address Bar section, and make sure that "Search engines" is selected. When I do that, I can click in the address bar (which brings up the drop-down), type "ebay", and then you'll see "Search with eBay" appear below in the drop-down,…

I think that's just because the ebay search engine is installed by default? They want this to work for any site with a search engine they've ever visited - at least, that's how it works in Chrome, IIRC.

Re: Firefox address bar

#258
post #3
post #2

I don't think I've ever used these modifiers but Firefox's address bar, Awesomebar, is indeed awesome. Compared to the utter garbage that is Chromium's Omnibar, I can find any page I've visited within a few key strokes. Chromium, on the other hand, almost immediately forgets and you have to go to the actual History to find it. Even Safari is miles ahead of Chromium in this regard. I'm still convinced that crippling O…

> Awesomebar Haha! Hello, fellow longtime Firefox user. I also vividly remember this term in Firefox's marketing a long time ago, but the most recent results on Google are from circa 2010. Seems they've largely dropped it as a public-facing term :)

Heh, this was a fun fact to learn. Had no idea they stopped using it. Thanks for sharing!

Re: Firefox address bar

#259
post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another great thing that only seem to exist for Firefox is Tree Style Tab [1] and a bunch of plugins around it. It completely changes the way I browse. There is an honest but much, much more limited attempt top bring a something similar to Chromium: [2]. [1]: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tree-style-ta... [2]: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/tree-style-tab/oic...

Is there a good way to hide the top tabs without getting into barely supported config files? I like TST, but I gave up on it because I could never get the top tabs hidden correctly, and all the information I could find on the internet was different levels of out of date.

I don't think so. I use Sidebery and their recommended approach is to edit userChrome.css. It's not too bad and works well. See https://github.com/mbnuqw/sidebery/wiki/Firefox-Styles-Snipp....

Re: Firefox address bar

#260
post #251
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is Firefox's best kept secret. To this day I cannot fathom anyone willingly switching from Firefox to Chrome/Edge/any other Chromium-based browser. There are so many tiny features that are useful at least to myself, while a minor JavaScript performance advantage isn't something that important in the grand scale of things.

Another great thing that only seem to exist for Firefox is Tree Style Tab [1] and a bunch of plugins around it. It completely changes the way I browse. There is an honest but much, much more limited attempt top bring a something similar to Chromium: [2]. [1]: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tree-style-ta... [2]: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/tree-style-tab/oic...

This thread really makes me miss old vimperator/pentadactyl.,
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