I just updated my Firefox nightly build, and it’s impossible not to notice the new location bar. I sat there for a minute almost like a deer staring into headlights because I just wasn’t sure what to think about it. It’s, well, big.
I’ve got an animated image below that demonstrates the new feature in action, and you’ll notice that every entry takes up two lines. The top line has the website’s icon, title, and a star (depending on whether the site is bookmarked or not). The second line, in a much smaller and green font, has the URL of the website. As you type the matching portions of the title and URL are highlighted and underlined so that you can easily tell what matches.
Here’s a demonstration of how it works:
I’m a bit torn as to whether I actually like this. I think that it looks really good, but it takes up so much room. To the best of my knowledge Firefox is the first browser to take a multi-line approach to the Location Bar, and it might be a risky approach.
I’m sure it will grow on me, but I included the animated demonstration above so everyone chime in with what they think. Hit us up in the comments below with your first impressions.
Looks cool. It is pretty big, but if you’re just typing addresses and not trying to look at content underneath, it seems as though it’d be nothing more than an eyesore.
I don’t like it. I like all my applications, including Firefox, to look clean. I’d rather focus on content than browser.
I agree with BinaryMuse. Who cares how big it is if you aren’t reading the content underneath? Plus, it’s not like it takes up the entire window.
The nightlies of Opera 9.5 also use two lines when you’re typing into the location bar, if the word you’re typing appears in the page itself.
To be honest, I don’t like the new location bar. I like to keep it simple, y’know.
I agree that it’s big. I’m wondering why they chose to make it two lines, because all the information fits perfectly well on one line too. What does it look like when you hit the down arrow? Does it select the two lines at the same time?
I can see how this is useful on small screens, but I’m not sure I see any advantages for large screens (more like disadvantages..).
Yes, it selects two lines at the same time.
That’s true, but I look at that differently. They are actually using the second line to show more content. Mozilla is actually showing the same content, just bigger.
I’m not all that surprised to see some of you not being fond of the new design. It’s a rather big change and breaks away from what we’ve become accustomed to in web browsers. I’m sure there will be an extension to kick it back to normal though.
Oh, and one thing I forgot to mention in the article. There is a lot of whitespace when you have Firefox maximized and the location bar drops down. For me the entire right half of the dropdown area is all whitespace.
Oh nice addition, I am definitely going to be loving that one. Kinda like Safari.
I really like it. The fact that it is 2 lines doesn’t bother me.
Cool!
I’m sure there will be options, if nowhere else, then in about:config. Isn’t there always?
I am the same after testing it, But they could make it abit smaller
I don’t see any problem in having two lines. Opera already has it and nobody’s complaining.
It’s something new in Firefox. But I’m sure as the days drag by, we will get accustomed to this minor change. No big deal!
That’s a waste of space then..
Has anyone come up with an advantage of this route that Firefox is taking? How do two lines instead of one improve usability or accessibility? I cannot find a reason but there must obviously be one..
Edit: After some more research, I found another screenshot here:
[bugzilla.mozilla.org]
from: [bugzilla.mozilla.org]
I can see how it can help with long page titles now. Furthermore it seems they’re still fine-tuning it (CSS changes proposed). I guess it could give web developers another reason to extend page titles now, which has already been good for SEO-reasons.
At first I saw the words “New” and “Firefox 3″ so I thought the browser got something cool. Then I saw it and I realized it’s nothing special. Looks very unnecessary and big. I hope they put a disable about:config pref for this, because I’m sure many won’t want it. The only other implementation I’ve seen is the Opera 9.5b full page history find in address bar. I’ve since disabled that (opera:config) because it occasionally hung on my low-end PC.
Could be worse, I guess.
Honestly, I rarely type in URLs to begin with…so I really don’t care.
It seems Alex Faaborg already wrote about this on October 10th:
[blog.mozilla.com]
Tags will be added to the interface as well, so a two-line presentation is probably the best way to go. If they can manage “suggestions will learn and adapt based on the results you choose”, the result should be pretty amazing!
I’m thinking there will be an extension to change it back, but it’s a bit more advanced than what a simple about:config typically offers. There will undoubtedly be a way to change it though.
It is nice for those sites with long page titles, but after a day of using the browser I’ve notice that it takes me longer to find what I’m looking for from the drop down list. That’s because there is more than twice the distance that I have to scan with my eyes. But, with that being said, if the site you’re looking for is in the first two or three results I think it is easier to see because of the large font.
I use the Address Bar all of the time, so it is a pretty big deal for me. I often start typing a URL, and then use the arrows to select it from the dropdown list.
I did see Alex mention that, but I think even with the tags there will still be a lot of whitespace.
Isn’t that in the next build of Opera 9.5? Just saying…
I just want to say I’ve come to love this new feature. What hasn’t been mentioned yet (unless I overlooked it) is that you can now search through your history and bookmarks this way like you would search in a search engine. For example: to go to the CyberNet Firefox article you’ve read this week (or bookmarked), you could type “cyber firefox” and it will be there immediately. Speeds up navigation a lot and you don’t have to remember the exact name or URL
For some reason “cyber news” doesn’t work, I guess both keywords cannot be in the same word, but that doesn’t make much sense to me.
Also the tags are not in place yet in beta5, which seems odd to me as the next release will be a release candidate. You can search on tags, but it won’t show the exact tag as a hit (highlighted) in the dropdown.
I’ve actually started to like the new address bar as well. I’m surprised that “cyber news” doesn’t work for you though because it does for me in Firefox 3 Beta 5.
Hmm, where “news” is not in the page/bookmark title or tag?
Can’t edit my comment, so here’s another one: try typing “cybe rnet” in the locationbar (without the quotes). It should match but it doesn’t. It seems very arbitrary when it matches and when it doesn’t, because “cyber net” does match..
Yep, it all matches just fine:
[cybernetnews.com]
Ryan, could you email me? I don’t want to pollute the comments
(you can delete this one and my previous ones too, to clean up)
I can see how it can be useful, but the thing is I never ever look at the title of a page, only the address; so when I see a long list of titles polluting my beloved history sorted in order of the most frequently visited pages made me think it was the progeny of Satan after about 40 mins! But thank goodness firefox does not ram it down my throat (much) so I was able to disable it via browser.urlbar.matchOnlyTyped and then the oldbar addon
Personally I really like the fact that it includes the titles. It helps me differentiate between the results more quickly, especially when there are several pages that are all located at the same domain.
With this addon you can go back to FF2 Address bar / Location bar.
Not only in aspect but also in functionality!!!
[addons.mozilla.org]
Nice find, we’ll have to try this out and possibly include it in next Wednesday’s article on tips for Firefox 3. Thanks!