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Firefox address bar

wiki.tilde.institute

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Re: Firefox address bar

#321
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Btw if you also use DuckDuckGo, you can start your search with "!hn" and "!r" bangs: https://duckduckgo.com/bangs

And you can go full circle, adding DDG's bangs as bookmark keywords on Firefox! https://www.ghacks.net/2022/01/13/use-all-of-duckduckgos-ban... https://github.com/jameshealyio/bang-bookmarks/

You can replicate DDG's bangs in Chrome too: https://jerrynsh.com/how-to-google-with-a-bang/#how-to-googl...

Re: Firefox address bar

#322
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.

This is there in chromium based browsers too, though. Settings -> search engine -> site search and then the exact same mechanism.

Re: Firefox address bar

#323
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny enough, I just posted on Mastodon looking for recommendations of other browsers to try. While I love the flexibility and openness that Firefox brings, there is a resource issue for me on my macbook pro. I have to spend a lot of time in Google Meets for work, and video conferencing via Firefox seems to redline the computer... It sounds like a jet engine and I wind up thermal throttling to the point that my machi…

Have you tried disabling hardware acceleration?

I haven't. That was recommended to me by someone else and something I am going to look into.

I would have assumed that offloading the video processing to the dedicated GPU would be a good thing, but hopefully that helps with the problem.

Re: Firefox address bar

#324
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny enough, I just posted on Mastodon looking for recommendations of other browsers to try. While I love the flexibility and openness that Firefox brings, there is a resource issue for me on my macbook pro. I have to spend a lot of time in Google Meets for work, and video conferencing via Firefox seems to redline the computer... It sounds like a jet engine and I wind up thermal throttling to the point that my machi…

I wonder if Google would have any vested interest in making Meets a bad experience in Firefox... No, it must be Firefox that's wrong!

I have no doubt that Google is hamstringing performance on Firefox. But that is far outside of my sphere of control so I am focusing on the things I can effect.

Another member recommended disabling hardware acceleration so that is the first thing I'll try. If you have any other recommendations on how I can reduce the impact of the issue I'd love to hear them.

Re: Firefox address bar

#325

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…

DDG bangs[0] does this too but without the need to set up your own custom macros.

[0] https://duckduckgo.com/bangs

Re: Firefox address bar

#326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

It will always be the awesomebar to me. And I'll never stop calling the hamburger menu, The Hamburger Menu.

I'm afraid to ask what it's called now...

Re: Firefox address bar

#327

It used to be that search and address were two different fields in the browser UI. That helped - if typed in the address bar, you were probably looking for something in an address [so if you typed potato, it could search for a url in your local history with the word potato], and not for something in a web page. Then Google realized you could combine the two; this makes it less likely you will use a competing search,…

> Then Google realized you could combine the two; this makes it less likely you will use a competing search, gives you more places to show ads (as more things qualify as search) and most importantly - legitimizes tracking every page you open - as you did a web search for the URL!

While Google may have the poor intentions you mentioned, don't most user prefer the omnibar vs separate bars? I personally like it quite a lot.

Re: Firefox address bar

#328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It will always be the awesomebar to me. And I'll never stop calling the hamburger menu, The Hamburger Menu.

(-: Although…I've had the most success with guiding new users by calling it "the thing that looks like an air vent" or "a funny little group of three horizontal lines". When I called it "the hamburger menu", I got confused stares. Maybe if the top line looked more like the top of a hamburger bun… although why a hamburger should mean "menu" is still a bit odd.

I do find my self saying the 3 lined button in the upper left/right corner. But sometimes in professional settings I let hamburger slip out.

Re: Firefox address bar

#329

My favourite find of the past 12 months is Ctrl+L which gives the address bar focus so you can begin typing.

While doing a search in search engine you can use `/` to go to the search bar, this also works in YouTube. In Firefox use this for quick find on the page

I dislike shortcuts with special characters, as its availability depends on the keyboard layout. It's quite common that the shortcut doesn't work when you have to use modifier keys to invoke it.

Some vendors make an effort to support non-US layouts, others not so much (e.g Adobe, and recently Microsoft).

As a shortcut junkie, I've even changed the OS keyboard layout to enable more shortcuts to work, and memorising the location of special characters by feel. But that's not exactly an intuitive UX.

As some examples of shortcut keys that usually brings me dread are: /, ~, [, ], ;, |

I much prefer shortcuts in the form of "ctrl + letter"

Re: Firefox address bar

#330

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…

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-search-from-address...
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