» One Interface

One Interface

Raymond Chen has reasonably pointed out that most low-end users don’t like using the search boxes that modern browsers provide in addition to address bars. I couldn’t agree more.

The first thing I do with any new FireFox install, before loading up bookmarks or any of my favourite extensions, is to remove the search bar. Why?

  1. Ease of use. I don’t want to have to think about which box I’m going to use for a particular action, especially when the most common action is using Google: which works equally well in both boxes.
  2. Address bar is faster. Any time you move your hands from the keyboard to the mouse, you lose a significant portion of time. I don’t know if the search bar has a keyboard shortcut, but I know that the address bar does (Alt+d). Even if it does, how do I then quickly select a different search engine than the default?
  3. The address bar is multi-functional. I can use it for URLs and google, but if I add some keyword searches to my bookmarks (replace the query string %s and add a keyword), then I can have any search engine I want at my finger tips.

This makes the search box dead space in a prime location. It’s one (recent) saving is the addition of Google-style autocomplete. With a little more work this could, and should, be integrated into the address bar. At the very least, the option should be available.

So, what other things do I use the address bar quick search for?

I use it for dictionaries (”dic”), the thesaurus (”thes), torrents (”torr”), and just about any other common search because it is better. Give it a try.

Posted: November 28th, 2006

, By Gary Fleming

Recently, I found myself using Opera for a month or two. Initially infuriating was the address bar keyboard shortcut (F8 instead of Alt+d), but useful was the ability to type “g [search query]” into the address bar and have google return the results of that query. Similarly, “a [search]” used answers.com, and “z [search]” used amazon.com.

Presumably these strings are configurable somewhere, but it sure was nice to have something like this working out of the box.

# Posted by Steve, on November 28th, 2006 at 10:22 pm

Steve: absolutely configurable. Like I said, just:

  • Search for some known value (say “UI”) to get something like “http://www.google.com/search?q=ui”.
  • Bookmark the page, then right click the bookmark and go to properties.
  • Replace the known value of “ui” in the query string with “%s”, and add something you want to use as your search id (for Google, I use “g”).

Then it should work. I believe newer versions of FF come with a few out of the box as well, like Google (using “Google [term]“).

# Posted by Gary Fleming, on November 28th, 2006 at 11:11 pm

I was actually referring to the configurability of Opera (in that I’d have gotten rid of the answers.com option, and pointed ‘a [search]‘ to Amazon). But that’s surprisingly neat on the part of the Firefox folks — good to know. Cheers.

# Posted by Steve, on November 29th, 2006 at 1:36 am

I rather like the search bar in Firefox, myself. You can get to it with a quick Command K, then scroll through the engines with Command up arrow/down arrow (that’s on a Mac, obviously, but there must be PC equivalents).

For some unknown reason I use the keyword search method for Google, though, and the search bar for Wikipedia, eBay, IMDB &c..

# Posted by Jack, on November 29th, 2006 at 4:51 pm

Jack: turns out that is the same set of shortcuts on Windows (and I’d wager Linux too). Cheers. I still say one bar is faster (less button presses, less target acquisition) and more consistent than two.

As an aside: I’d also bet that the majority of the people who have learned to use the search bar are comfortable with light command line usage, and would be better served treating the address bar as such.

# Posted by Gary Fleming, on November 29th, 2006 at 5:44 pm