
When you type realty.com into Safari it takes you to realtor.com - shiftpgdn
https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10157161487396994&id=501751993
======
saagarjha
This has been driving me mad for the better part of a year: the autocomplete
behavior in Safari is totally broken. Last year it started picking words from
your query and going through your history and using that to autocomplete so
you'd always go to some random thing from your history that's barely relevant
even for the most generic search terms (if I type "ptrace" I want to go to a
web search, not some random Stack Overflow question I clicked on two years ago
that happened to have "ptrace" in its title). Now it's randomly loading other
websites _I have never been to_ when I type search terms (I searched "sketch"
the other day and it took me to "sketchers.com"). It's WWDC week, so FB7333211
for the first one and another incoming once I can reproduce this reliably.
Please fix your stuff, Apple.

Oh, while I'm here: trying to escape out of the autocomplete suggestion is
also awful, it's some sort of combination of ⎋ and ⌫ and the arrow keys until
you can get the thing to not show up in the bar, and then you have to look
very closely to make sure that it's not going to send you to the Top Hit
anyways.

~~~
zamalek
> the autocomplete behavior in Safari is totally broken.

I'm looking for a genuine honest answer here, this really isn't rhetorical.
Every second thread regarding Apple seems to have top comments complaining
about the quality of what Apple has become. The first I recall was the
butterfly keyboard fiasco, then some others, then El Capitan and Big Sur bugs,
then this.

Again, I really want to understand this: why the continued loyalty?

~~~
easygenes
I’ve used a maxed out ThinkPad X1 Extreme and a maxed out MacBook Pro side by
side. At a glance, very comparable specs. The MacBook Pro was a nicer
experience. Not loyalty, it’s just better. The complaints are typically more
of a, “You’ve gotten so many things right and better than everyone else, why
is this rough edge still a problem!?”

~~~
_coveredInBees
Meanwhile my maxed out MBP 16 suffers from consistent kernel panics and
reboots any time I plug into a thunderbolt dock. This is my first Mac after
being in Windows land for a long time and getting fed up with recurring
driver/firmware issues with my Dell XPS15 (fantastic hardware, terrible
software/firmware integration though).

There are definitely things that are nicer on OSX, but there are also a lot of
warts that people seem to gloss over. Finder is an absolute abomination as a
file explorer and it boggles my mind that this is the best OSX has to offer
after years of refinement. Having to install a separate utility to switch
mouse scroll directions when using a BT mouse is also ridiculous. You have to
shell out money just to have basic features your OS should provide like window
management (Better touch tool / magnet).

External monitor rendering is really bad if you connect to a non HDPI monitor.
Thunderbolt dock integration is pretty atrocious if you are trying to connect
to more than one external monitor. And the OS keeps getting more locked down
so opening a simple Word file takes > 5 seconds because of all the sandboxing
going on in Catalina.

There are definitely things OSX / MBP does much better, but everyone acts like
it is far superior to Windows-based laptops, and I have unfortunately been
rather surprised at the large number of pain points I have had with my MBP...
none of which have anything to do with me having spent more time on Windows.

There is a very good chance that a colleague of mine who has been a life-long
OSX user and I will end up switching back to a windows-based laptop in a
couple of years. Windows is far more dev friendly and with WSL2 + CUDA + GUI
apps on the roadmap, a solid Windows laptop with an nVidia GPU looks like a
much more interesting proposition even if I have to put up with some rough
edges.

~~~
cycomanic
One thing that our IT people complain a lot about is that some of the macbooks
don't have enough power on their USB ports/port replicator, so you can't
attach some USB devices when on battery. Even more infuriating, for some
projectors don't work without the notebook (because the port-replicator does
not have enough power).

I also find it very interesting that if there is a problem with a some
website/file/software mac-users blame it on the software (and actually windows
users agree even if it works fine for them), but if it's a Linux user that has
problems, it's always "because he/she is using Linux"

------
SigmundA
Want another fun Safari auto complete bug?

Have a tab open that is changing its title on an interval.

Try to type something in any tabs address bar and use the arrow or a mouse to
try and pick a result, the focus will constant jump and reset to the beginning
every time the title changes on any tab, making it nearly impossible to pick a
result if its changing fast enough.

The auto complete list seems to be populated with web page titles in real time
and the list is being modified causing the results to be rerendered.

I found this after trying to use a Super Micro IPMI that updates the title
with the current FPS on every frame, had it in a background tab and couldn't
get to a search result, oh the frustration and time that cost me to actually
track down.

Reported it to Apple of course nothing.

~~~
spiderfarmer
So that's how this happens. I always thought it had something to do with
sticky arrow keys or something.

~~~
Darkphibre
Reminds me of an issue on Windows I just figured out. My keyboard input kept
getting yanked to the other PC.

For some reason, my mouse cursor moves back and forth when I use the arrow
keys. Been happening for a while, but whatever.

Magic Mouse (KBM emulator) at some point got configured so that holding ctrl-
shift-mousemove would snap the mouse to the PC in that direction.

Sooo, Ctrl-Shift-Left (highlight previous word, something I would do
_frequently_ [like _just now_ to highlight and italicize 'frequently']) would
end up also moving the mouse left a few pixels... which would send the mouse
and keyboard over to the other PC.

Took me a few weeks to track that one down.

------
jameshawkins
I just tried this on Safari on my phone - I was sent to Realtor.com as well. I
tried it a few times and was redirected each time, even though I typed
"realty.com" in the URL bar (and it didn't auto-correct before I hit "Go").

~~~
kace91
It doesn’t work for me. I wonder if it’s location related? I’m in spain if it
makes any difference.

~~~
CGamesPlay
Is your phone in English? That seems more likely to be related.

~~~
542458
My phone is in English, but I didn’t get the redirect. I’m in Canada.

~~~
lutoma
Didn't happen for me either in Germany (despite English iOS). May be US-
specific?

------
VWWHFSfQ
Safari is the absolute worst web browser by far. Both mobile and desktop.

This kind of egregious error is only the most obvious part.

Try doing a WebRTC conference call in Safari. Google Meet, Microsoft Teams,
Slack, Zoom, Jitsi Meet, etc, etc, etc. None of them support Safari. Do you
know why? It's because Safari is absolutely _riddled_ with bugs: [1][2][3].

It is incredible how bad Safari is.

[1]
[https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=211181](https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=211181)

[2]
[https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=212669](https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=212669)

[3]
[https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=212780](https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=212780)

~~~
om2
Google Meet works fine, as does Jitsi Meet. We're working with popular WebRTC
providers one at a time. Unfortunately, the state of WebRTC interop is pretty
bad across the board, so providers use website lockouts and qualify one
browser at a time. Sorry about those three bugs. They do sound like bugs and
will be looked into.

~~~
hutattedonmyarm
Huh, I never got _anything_ that does audio/video calling to work on Safari.
Always only provides a test video and audio. Permissions are all granted

~~~
platypushexley
Isn't that the "Use mock capture devices" function in the Develop > WebRTC
menu?

------
noodlesUK
I think this is symptomatic of the really overzealous approach that Apple has
towards autocomplete and autocorrect these days. The autocorrect has a nasty
habit of replacing my correct sentences containing absolutely normal non-
technical vocabulary with annoyingly incorrect garbage. It routinely replaces
“well” with “we’ll” when it makes absolutely no sense to do so, and generally
adds apostrophes all over the place. Not to mention the way it handles names.
Sometimes I want my name to not be capitalised, such as in my email address.
Even pressing backspace, then typing the same thing in again after it
autocorrects incorrectly doesn’t solve anything.

~~~
benhurmarcel
I just prefer to disable autocorrect.

------
cglong
I received my new American Express and, when trying to enter the URL on the
sticker, Safari suggested a phishing site as the "top result". I tried
reporting this to both Apple and AMEX but never received a response :(

~~~
hirsin
Maybe worth semi weaponizing it? Make your own phishing page that gets into
this list (easier said than done) and as soon as they click the sign in button
(pre credential entry) splash a page explaining that Apple is busted?

~~~
vmception
no way make it a Tim Cook crypto giveaway with a continuous livestream of a
video of him talking about technology, and a countdown

why should you have to only shell out money for some petty bs, if you randomly
find a gold mining claim you go excavate the gold.

------
egypturnash
I just typed realty.com into OSX Safari 13.1.1 and got the proper site. Then
when I picked up my iPhone (ios 13.5) and started to do the same test it
autocompleted 'real' into 'realty.com'.

On the OSX side, the 'search' pane of settings has Safar Suggestions and Quick
Website Search on, has preload top hit and show favorites off, and has DDG as
the search. On IOS I have DDG as the search, and have Search Engine
Suggestions, Safari Suggestions, and Quick Website Search on, and Preload Top
Hit off. And have Frequently Visited Sites off.

It _is_ worth mentioning that OSX Safari offered 'realtor.com' as a 'Top Hit'
suggestion below the address bar, which I could have chosen with a quick
downarrow, return, but at no point did it try to fill in autocomplete for me.

I almost wonder if this is happening to the owner of realty.com because they
have spent a lot of time looking at realtor.com while building a site that
competes with it, and Safari now thinks this is a site they really love to go
to. — EDIT. Oh no I missed the part where there are videos of this being done
on demo iPhones at the Apple store. Crazy! And not good.

~~~
crazygringo
Yup, similar -- I've never visited either in my life prior, but on macOS it
goes to realty.com, but I am shocked that on iOS I type in "realty.com" and it
doesn't autocorrect, but lists "realtor.com" as the top suggestion below, but
when I hit enter _it goes to realtor.com instead of realty.com!_

That is _seriously_ bad functionality. I've already been annoyed at iOS's
keyboard overly autocorrecting, but to change a URL I typed in explicitly
_really_ pisses me off.

~~~
ehsankia
I'm curious, did yours also have the extra m (realty.comm)? Both the 2nd and
3rd phone the video shows has the extra m, which makes me think it's an actual
bug in the autocomplete, where it has completed to "realtor.com" (notice
realtor has one more letter than realty), but you actually don't see it
(except the last letter, the extra m at the end). So when you press enter, it
goes to realtor.

If you do get the extra m, can you play around and see what happens if you
delete the extra m at the end? Does it go to realtor.co? realty.com?

~~~
crazygringo
Nope, never saw any extra m. Sounds like something in your personal
autocomplete "learned dictionary".

I don't know why, but 5 years ago the autocorrect on iOS never bothered me
much, but over the past 1-2 years it's gotten _much_ more "wrong". It's been
driving me nuts.

~~~
ehsankia
To be clear, I don't have an iPhone myself, which is why I was wondering if
you could check. I was referring to the video linked by the post. The phones
there are brand new so they shouldn't have a learned dictionary, yet both the
2nd and third phone have the same behavior of adding an extra "m" at the end
there if you look closely at the video.

------
breatheoften
Url editing on iphone safari is highly messed up experience ... the text
selection and editing behavior is just broken since ios 12 or 11 -- whichever
one introduced the new text selection model ...

My standard easy repro -- go to a long url and try to edit the second to last
segment of the url path (something which i do for work frequently when folks
send me links to projects under development).

Enjoy the frustration.

~~~
eclipxe
Works fine for me. I just long press on the keyboard to get into cursor edit
mode and swipe along until I get to where I want.

~~~
ajzinsbwbs
Nice, thanks! Now that you remind me I’m sure I’ve seen that move before, but
forgot about it and have been frustrated when editing urls every day since. I
think this is the worst thing about using an iPhone for me and probably a lot
of other users. Here is the full incantation to get it to work:

1\. Touch the address bar and the keyboard will appear.

2\. Long press on the spacebar (other parts of the keyboard won’t do it) until
a cursor appears in the address bar.

3\. Without lifting your finger after the long press, start dragging your
finger left and right. The cursor will move.

Maybe writing that out will help me remember. If only there was some
affordance in the ui indicating this common use is supported.

~~~
breatheoften
This is better than what I've been doing ...

But I find the experience of the cursor navigation by long-press on keyboard
quite odd still ... if you stay in the mode for awhile -- and try sliding back
and forth its quite an odd experience as it feels like the algorithm behind
the cursor motion and its relationship to scrolling becomes less clear over
time rather than more understood ...

Maybe there is something wrong with my touchscreen ... I can't figure out how
to get the soft keyboard to scroll the cursor position reliably past the
viewable area -- sometimes it does scroll and sometimes it doesn't and its a
bit of a mystery to me what the intended motion input into the device is that
will meet my desires ...

seems like maybe the panning speed needs to be proportional to the fingers
vertical height in the keyboard or something -- no panning up top, and fast
panning below

~~~
ajzinsbwbs
It seems that if the cursor won’t go right as far as you want, it helps to
move your finger all the way left for a while, then try moving it right again
(and vice versa). But that doesn’t always work so it doesn’t fully describe
the mechanic. Performing this basic function feels like learning a fighting
game. You need to charge up you cursor-moving mana.

------
nodamage
I've run into a similar problem on the Mac version of Safari for a while now:

I'll paste in a full ([http://](http://) or [https://](https://)) URL and hit
Enter, but instead of loading the requested URL it just reloads the current
page. I sometimes have to paste it a couple times before it will actually load
the URL I want.

Anyone else encountered this or am I just going crazy?

~~~
scottjg
i was hoping someone would bring this up. it happens to me all the time.

~~~
bichonnages
Me too!

------
rjeli
Alright, while we’re talking about iOS autocomplete - I have a question. I
noticed that sometimes when I’m typing an out-of-dictionary word, sometimes
the keyboard will actually type the key _next to the key I tapped_ that would
type a real word. I imagine they’ve put a lot of effort into making the touch
keyboard accurate, so is this a feature to that end or, more likely, is it a
Baader-Meinhof thing, that I only notice when it happens?

~~~
smitop
This is probably the keyboard adjusting the tap area of the keys based on the
predicted likelyhood of that key being pressed:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=20&v=wPmVKyhyl9U](https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=20&v=wPmVKyhyl9U)

~~~
rjeli
Wow, I never would have been able to google that. Thanks for confirming I'm
not crazy.

------
heavymark
File a bug report on [https://webkit.org/reporting-
bugs/](https://webkit.org/reporting-bugs/). Unlike the apple bug reporter
where it goes into an abyss and might be years before a resolution or even a
reply, with the webkit reporting system I usually get a response from apple
employees very quickly and majority of the items fixed in the next release or
two.

~~~
pier25
That has _not_ been my experience when reporting bugs to webkit.

I've reported a couple of bugs that are still there, years after I reported
them.

See this one for example reported in 2016:

[https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=162512](https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=162512)

Or this other one from 6 months ago and still no response from the team:

[https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=207049](https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=207049)

------
cromka
What really drives me mad is that there is no public bugreporting for any
Apple soft, except for the betas obviously.

Only then we'd be able to have an idea of the sheer extent of bugginess of
their products, and how the heavily advertised features never work. I hope
someone with energy and time actually creates and maintains an open,
alternative bugzilla for that purpose specifically.

~~~
djrogers
> What really drives me mad is that there is no public bugreporting for any
> Apple soft, except for the betas obviously.

Second google result for ‘report apple bug’ :

[https://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html](https://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html)

~~~
sb8244
I think that the intent of parent is to have the bugs be publicly visible,
like
[https://issuetracker.google.com/issues?q=status:open](https://issuetracker.google.com/issues?q=status:open)

------
callamdelaney
Have you tried typing 'form/multipart' into your firefox url bar? I expect a
google search - what I get is a redirect to
`[https://form.com/multipart`](https://form.com/multipart`) \- what?!

~~~
jeroenhd
Firefox does that to fix quickly typed domains if they're not found by DNS (it
appends .com and tries to load that). It's probably because form/multipart is
nearly a functional URL (where "form" is the hostname, which could very well
be resolved in corporate networks or through a hosts file, for example).

If you want to be sure you're executing a search, either use a keyword for
Google or start your query with a question mark. A quick way to execute a
search is to hit control+k, which puts focus to the URL bar and prepopulates
it with "? " so that whatever you type after it is executed as a search.

I actually dislike it when Firefox does the opposite for websites like pi.hole
or fritz.box. The domain does resolve, but you get redirected to a search page
regardless and Firefox put a suggestion to navigate to what you typed. My
address bar is not a Google search form, it's an address bar that happens to
search on Google when I type something that's not a web address.

------
grimmdude
Same happens for me, realty.com -> realtor.com. However, explicitly typing
[https://realty.com](https://realty.com) works fine.

iOS 13.5.1

------
sli
I've noticed that Safari on iOS autocompletes so aggressively that if you go
to a full URL on a site (e.g.
[https://example.com/somesection/page.html](https://example.com/somesection/page.html))
you can pretty much no longer type just "example.com" into the address bar. It
will pretty damn aggressively autofill in the URL to the page you visited
earlier.

Maybe it was a bug in an earlier version that's been fixed, I don't do a
_whole_ lot of browsing on my phone. But that was (or still is) easily the
most obnoxious browser bug in my recent memory.

------
recursive
Killer service idea for apple users: RealUrlBar.io

You type in a url into a textbox, and then it gives you a hyperlink to that
site.

------
dhosek
Safari's latest version has added some asynchronous coding that has impact
behavior of the browser in negative ways. If you type the first part of a URL
and there are multiple options so you use down arrow to get to the one that
you want, a lot of times, the list is still being populated and Safari will
jump the cursor back up to the top of the list. I think this is part of that
same bad coding.

------
nixpulvis
And people wonder why I've been begging for the ability to set my own default
browser in iOS for so long...

So many people defend Apple's walled garden, and then they do things like
this, be it on purpose or by accident.

What a mess.

~~~
noisy_boy
TIL you can't set your own default browser on iOS.

~~~
dpacmittal
Until 2 days back. With iOS 14 you can now choose default browser and mail
client

------
40four
I tested on my iPhone and it does not have this behavior. It went to the
correct site on Safari & on Firefox.

Why is he demonstrating on random phones in an Apple store? That’s not really
a good example of a ‘clean’, out of the box device.

A ton of people have tinkered with those phones. Isn’t it possible that some
other people typed ‘realtor.com’ in all those phones in the past?

Either way it you type a specific, valid URL, it should never be overridden
with an autocomplete.

------
013a
Cannot replicate on the iOS 14 beta. While I get a suggestion for realtor.com,
typing realty.com and hitting go takes me to realty.com.

~~~
jdeibele
I can't replicate on the iOS beta or the MacOS beta for realty.com. For
"sketch" \- first result Safari shows is sketchup.google.com but it shows
Skechers.com as a choice.

BTW, been super pleased with the betas so far.

------
rapnie
Tangential. I find it annoying that Firefox hardcoded a whole bunch of URL's
in their search bar history. I have 'Provide suggestions' off (privacy), yet
it suggests me walmart.com, facebook.com, americanexpress.com, etcetera.. all
sites that I have zero interest for. I guess they must be there, because they
earn some money from it?

------
nsonha
The whole idea of recommendation systems is based on the assumption that
you're gonna keep doing the samething over. Its accuracy is depending on
whether you are a person of habbits or constantly changing. While in some
aspects having a pattern is good (work or routine life tasks), in many others
it's an indication of something unhealthy or not optimal. You don't want to be
that person that seems to have a limited vocab and just keep using the same
phares. You also most likely dont want to keep buying the same stuff or
reading just that one particular genre/author/news outlet. Autocomplete
particularly never worked to me and I'm happy that I cant seem to be
typecasted by a machine. As a software developer, I wonder what the people who
made these engines think. Are they actually happy that their code makes people
more predictable?

------
parliament32
Omnibars and browsers "guessing what you want" in general is pretty trash. I'm
having an issue with the Firefox one:

If I type a word, like "resolv" into the omnibar, it gives me the option to
"search with google". Great. But if I type in "resolv.conf", it by default
wants to "visit" (thinking .conf. is a tld)... but it doesn't even show me the
option to "search with google" in the dropdown! I've literally had to resort
to typing "google resolv.conf" which is a super gross way of going about it.

I don't know if combining search and URLs in one box was ever a good idea. I
feel I preferred the dual-box layout, where you had a URL bar on the left and
a search bar on the right.

------
alister
Trying to reproduce this Apple bug reminded me of another annoyance in the UI.
I went to enable _Safari Suggestions_ on my iPad, but it wouldn’t let me. The
button remained greyed out. It turns out that I need enable _Show Siri
Suggestions in App_ before I can enable _Safari Suggestions_. Buy why? They
seem unrelated. If you stick to the defaults in the Settings menu, everything
is fine, but if you change them you get exposed to inscrutable dependencies
among the settings. I imagine there is an explosion of complexity that isn’t
easily tested.

------
phs318u
I've just tried this on both macOS and iOS.

macOS 10.15.5 Safari 13.1.1 Tested 4 configurations: Search engine: DDG vs
Google Wipr adblock extension on/off.

In all four cases: Typed in realty.com and hit enter - got realty.com. Typed
in sketch and hit enter - got search results for the word sketch.

Tested exact same configurations (DDG/Google, Wipr on/off) on my phone. iOS
13.5.1 on iPhone XR Same results as above.

I'm just not seeing the behaviour that's being described here. Perhaps its a
geo thing? I'm in Australia. I assume most people here are in the US?

~~~
Karupan
I see the same behaviour down under. I wonder if Siri has got anything to do
with it? Mine is always disabled.

~~~
phs318u
I've got Siri enabled. It's odd.

EDITED: Sorry, I just realised, I'm not sure if you meant you're seeing the
same behaviour as me, or as everyone else.

~~~
Karupan
I meant I see the same behaviour as you :-) Can open those URLs just fine
without any redirection.

------
ljcus10
Does anybody believe Apple is making money off this? Redirecting websites to
competitors.

~~~
samirelanduk
Probably not tbh - the cost/benefit of getting such small amounts of money
versus enormous reputational damage is not remotely worth it.

~~~
ljcus10
My question is can they bid on it behind the scenes like a keyword. Siri
suggestions must have some type of revenue.

~~~
prawn
It would be a poorly considered algorithm rather than some bidding situation.
No sane person would build this intentionally. The big companies have too much
to lose especially.

~~~
jessaustin
Basically, this is Google's entire business: getting paid to send us where
someone else wants us to go. Google are "big". Why wouldn't Apple want in on
this action?

~~~
Carpetsmoker
Sponsored search results are marked as such in the Google results, it's
nothing like the automagic redirect Safari is showing here.

------
dec0dedab0de
I always hated having search in the address bar, And hidding the full url. Its
gotten even worse with all the screwy tlds.

------
baggy_trough
What drives me mad is typing queries that have a space. Most of the time it'll
do the intended search, but sometimes it'll try to go directly to the domain
with the space which immediately fails.

~~~
partdavid
Personally I hate conflating the URL entry space with the search query space.
Which is why I was so disappointed that Firefox removed my ability to separate
them recently.

~~~
SubiculumCode
I keep Firefox up to date on my Windows box (version 77.0.1) and I still have
the ability to have a dedicated search box. Are you on a pre-release channel?

~~~
partdavid
You have the ability to have a dedicated search box, but your URL bar is also
a search box, and you can't turn it off. I want to enter URLs in a box which
doesn't try to autocomplete as a search, doesn't search my search engine,
doesn't try to fill in missing TLDs, etc. I had something close before 75.0,
which introduced the "revamped" address bar that is also swollen.

I separated the search box not because I want a search box (I really don't
want a browser with a "search box" at all) but because I want un-interpreted,
un-looked-up URLs. Though the current URL box doesn't seem to actually search
implicitly, it's really hard to tell if its suggestions are coming from the
search engine or not and it's at least a step back in the wrong direction).

I'd love any suggestions for making the URL box dumber.

~~~
jwitthuhn
This is still possible in Firefox 77 if I am understanding correctly.

The magic entries in about:config are

keyword.enabled - Turning this off will make firefox never search for
something you type in the address bar.

browser.fixup.alternate.enabled - Turning this off will make firefox never try
to "fix" the url you type in by putting .com on the end of it.

~~~
partdavid
This is greatly appreciated!

------
natch
Was able to reproduce this with Safari on an iPhone with search engine (should
be irrelevant though) set to Duckduckgo.

After a couple repeated failures (where it went to realtor.com) I tried typing
in [http://realty.com](http://realty.com) (I forgot to use https fwiw) then it
visited the real site realty.com and again went to that same real correct site
on every subsequent attempt using just the bare string realty.com —- of course
that’s too much to ask of users, nor would anyone have a chance to ask them.

------
rawoke083600
As an android user who has an apple-only-girlfriend... I'm always amazed at
how exceptionally terrible autocomplete is on her iPhone, and how much better
the Android counterpart is. Lol the complete absolute nonsense the iPhone of
hers will predict is crazy for a premium phone from the worlds most valuable
company. Not hating (I love their hardware - not software) just wondering why
is it so bad on Apple ? Is there like a setting she must switch on like
"Planet Earth English" ?

~~~
easygenes
Maybe she’s the problem? It “learns” as you go based on your habits, so she
probably just writes very differently from you.

~~~
rawoke083600
I was thinking that ! Surely it must uses your like past history right ? Is
there something she should turn on ?

------
fastball
I feel like when Brave's similar behavior was posted on HN a week or so ago,
the company itself was getting a lot more hate for what I think is a less
egregious behavior.

Why the discrepancy?

------
martin-adams
This doesn't do it for me in the UK, but I did wonder if there was a spelling
auto correction happening between the Go and it hitting the address bar. Looks
like a bug nonetheless.

------
awinder
There’s a cottage industry of these terms apparently, I have “slickdeals.com”
autocompleting when typing “sl” and it forwards to a google “snow leopard”
search. Maddening.

------
boredatworkme
I just tried it on my iphone and I don't see this behavior. I have this option
of "pre-load top hit" disabled. I understand not a lot of users will have this
disabled and is probably what is causing this issue. Therefore, this is more
of an issue with the aggressive suggestions engine for websites that a
testament to how poor Safari as a browser is (which is what many comments here
seem to suggest).

------
Daub
The broken Spotlight search of OSX was one reason I moved to Windows. Day
after day of this: 1\. Try to open Photoshop, an app I use almost every day
2\. Type in 'phot...' 3\. Autocomplete successfully 4\. Just at the point I
hit enter, it changes autocomplete suggestion to random file i have not opened
in 7 years ('Photonic Irrigation Techniques of the Yagi')

------
jkulubya
Safari autocomplete on macOS is such a mess. Ever since I switched to
DuckDuckGo, I have to give it about two seconds between when I type a word and
when I can arrow down into the suggested pages and click enter. Otherwise,
when the suggested results from DDG come back the arrow position is reset and
I end up tapping enter to go to the wrong page. Didn’t have this issue with
google search or chrome.

------
HenryBemis
I only made it halfway through the comments. I like my machines to NOT do the
thinking for me and allow me to make my shortcuts.

One of the things I appreciateon my (default) phone setup (Android, Honor 8x,
Firefox, DDG) is that when I type on the browser's URL/search the autocorrect
is OFF. When I type in the DDF search form the autocorrect is ON.

I find this super logical (I keep suggestions off)

------
surround
Why doesn’t it give you any indication that it’s going to “correct” your query
before you hit enter? This has been bugging me lately.

------
d0100
Couldn't this lead to a nice settlement for this guy? Or would "it's a bug" be
an acceptable defense for Apple?

~~~
IfOnlyYouKnew
Apple and this website have no business relationship, so there’s no breech of
contract. Beyond that, Apple‘s duty of care is really very low.

If Google can take money to sent people to a website that otherwise would rank
below yours, Apple certainly isn’t liable for doing the same without
intention.

------
piyush_soni
Don't have an Apple device right now, but if I go to BrowserStack.com (just
created a free account there) and try it on a ' _real_ cloud iPhone 11 Pro'
(yeah, whatever that means) I cannot reproduce it. But then they don't allow
you to go and check if the suggestions are turned on or off so not sure.

------
forgotmypw17
Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Firefox, all working hard to take away the
Web's usefulness, feature by feature.

~~~
bsmith0
Really? That's a very cynical outlook.

~~~
forgotmypw17
Indeed it is, and I am not a cynical person. I tend to attribute incompetence
over malice, and I am not even sure that malice is actually at play here.

But the reality is that with every release of Firefox, Chrome, Safari, piece
by piece, the Web's most important behaviors and features, the things which
make it so awesome, are being removed.

------
jolmg
> Seems not that legal

> That seems incredibly illegal.

Why would it be illegal? I understand that it's unfair, but what law would be
broken here?

------
wincy
My wife's new iPhone SE 2020 does the same thing. My iPhone 6 Plus on iOS 12.4
correctly goes to realty.com

~~~
elliekelly
Does your phone have private browsing turned on and hers have it turned off?

------
Gertig
Just the word "realty" (and "realty.com") sends me to "realtor.com"

------
jm1234567890
I can’t reproduce this on my iPhone

------
chadlavi
Can't reproduce on iPhone X in the beta of iOS 14. Though I've also never had
this sort of thing happen to me generally. Safari always either does a search
for what I typed it goes to the exact address I entered.

------
suyash
I tried on mobile safari and it went to reality.com - bug didn't reproduce for
me

~~~
emmelaich
reality or realty?

~~~
suyash
oh my bad, just tried realty and it worked too as it went to realty.com

------
moon2
Weird, my iPhone is in English, but I live in Brazil, and couldn’t reproduce
it (iOS 13.5.1).

However, a bit unrelated, Siri suggested a website whose title is “Home -
Donuts” when I was typing news.ycombinator. And the link for it is just “news”

------
the_other
All of these take me to DDG search results on my iPhone X.

\- reality

\- reality.com

\- sketch

I tried with “Search Engine Suggestions” on and off, with the same results.

I couldn’t test with “Safari Suggestions”. The switch was disabled. I assume
this is due to having Siri disabled.

------
bad_user
On that same note Apple's auto-correction really sucks.

On my iPhone I replaced the keyboard with SwiftKey b/c I kept making
embarrassing mistakes with the default keyboard.

------
beshrkayali
Safari lost it when it stopped showing full url in address bar.

------
gruez
Can't replicate it on ios 13.5.1. Then again I also have a bunch of safari
features turned off (eg. suggestions, preloading) so it could be that.

~~~
StavrosK
He mentions in the post that turning suggestions off fixes it.

------
mcintyre1994
Not getting this in the UK. I’m guessing their suggestions are location
specific maybe? Though I don’t recall ever seen Safari do this myself.

------
josefresco
I was redirected to realtor.com - iPhone 11 iOS 13.4.1

------
joshjdr
I turned off the options in Settings > Siri & Search > Safari and now “s k e t
c h return” goes to google not skechers.com!

------
djrogers
Odd, totally not happening for me - and I’m a frequent realtor.com user. I
type in realty.com and it takes me to the correct website.

------
AndrewKemendo
I just replicated this on my iPhone 11 iOS 13 on Safari. Northeastern US, home
WIFI connection.

Does not replicate on Chrome or Firefox on the same phone

------
analog31
I wonder what it does in other localities. Is "realtor" even a word, outside
of the US?

~~~
pesfandiar
FWIW, it's a trademark and very much protected in Canada too.

------
gvpmahesh
Realty.com owner can technically sue the Apple and settle for a million
dollars at least

------
wrkronmiller
I just tried this on desktop Safari 14.0 and I went to realty.com without a
problem.

------
xrisk
Heads up: this seems to be a mobile Safari bug only; I can’t reproduce it on
macOS.

~~~
geuis
I was just able to replicate it in Safari 13.1.1 on Catalina

------
wasnthere
It works correctly if you add a space after realty.com

Tested on iPhone, Safari, iOS 13.5.1

~~~
recursive
I don't have an iphone, but what would correct behavior actually be for
"realty.com "?

------
trav4225
This is pretty typical of most software these days: user-hostile and painfully
dumbed down. Browsers especially seem to be able to get away with this because
there are practically no non-annoying alternatives that are sufficiently
secure and compatible.

------
sbr464
Went to realty.com on first test. Catalina 10.15.4, Safari 13.1

------
graeme
Already fixed? Can’t replicate on ipad pro ios 13

~~~
ljcus10
Not fixed it just does not happen on every device but it even happens on
MacBooks and iMacs

------
yeskia
Just tried this on my iPhone, took me to Realty.com but not before being
forced through a CAPTCHA page. It’s not an excuse, but I wonder if that has
anything to do with it.

~~~
kmutahar
The CAPTCHA is part of the site and has nothing to do with the domain.

The CAPTCHA is provided by Cloudflare and it’s up to the customer to chose to
show it before access to the site since it can decrease spam and hug of deaths

~~~
jessaustin
Wow suddenly I have a great deal more sympathy for Safari's behavior. When a
site is that hostile to visitors, steering them away is _almost_ a value-added
service.

------
rad_gruchalski
Not seeing this in Germany. iOS 13.5.1.

------
xt00
hopefully apple doesn't just whitelist realty.com to forward to realtor.com..
They should actually send you to the qualified URL if you type in a .com or
whatever.. like who these days types [http://](http://) or
[https://](https://) ? In chrome for example it hides the http or https now..

------
markstos
In Jira if you type an autocomplete @name too fast it will show the right
person selected in a list but autocomplete the wrong result.

------
jeffmcmahan
Replicated on iOS 12.3.1 iPhone SE

------
00deadbeef
I ended up at realty.com on iOS 13

~~~
asdf21
Realty.com on a iPhone XR

------
yqsk
Replicated on my iPhone

------
ljcus10
Does anyone believe that Apple is making money off this?

------
donohoe
Hard to read on Mobile page. Here is non-mobile link:

[https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10157161487396...](https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10157161487396994&id=501751993)

~~~
llacb47
Yep, URL should be changed

~~~
andybak
Not so fast. The altered link requires a login to Facebook. The original
actually shows partial content.

~~~
dang
Hmm, I'm not seeing that.

------
hn_check
I would assume the store devices (Best Buy) are locked to a small set of
domains for obvious reasons.

Further it seems that it's adding an extra m on the end on all but the first.

EDIT: LOL, -10 on this post. This place is such a swamp of imbeciles. Again,
this is 100% a DNS issue, and note that the majority do not have this. Verizon
or some other specific provider is blocking what they see, incorrectly, as
typosquatting. Guy tried zero Android devices in comparison. Probably because
he knew all of the "HRURR EVIL APPLE MAKING MONEY REDIRECTING" sloths would
run with it.

~~~
cortesoft
It happens on my iPhone... and I actually also get the extra 'm' when i type
the 'realty.com'

------
gotoeleven
The best feature of safari is "Remove from dock"

------
ilaksh
This is another reason people should not buy Apple.

------
classics2
Wow. And these are all on high value searches. Somebody is taking money here,
no way this is an autocomplete error.

------
fortran77
This is truly outrageous. Why would Apple want to destroy this man's business?

------
potatoman111
This is wild though... full domain entered and directs to a competitor? Is
Apple getting kick backs? Wonder what small businesses are crippled by this?

------
ncmncm
Will this be enough to make you swear off ever buying another Apple product?

If not, they have no reason to fix it. You will get used to it, soon enough,
and like every other offense, it will soon seem unremarkable.

The battered wife doesn't leave him because, she says, "I can still stand it."

------
igammarays
Probably because he has Realtor.com in his history. I didn't, so Realty.com
worked for me.

~~~
jameshawkins
I don't think I have either Realty.com or Realtor.com in my history and I was
able to reproduce. In the video, it looks like he tries it on a few devices at
the Apple Store, which likely have little history.

------
codezero
There’s a pretty simple explanation, and I think the behavior is almost
certainly a bug or a UX edge case they overlooked.

The entry in safari is acting only as a search box it seems, and Go takes you
to the first result that is finds - which is the first result on Google,
likely a paid ad, or just coincidentally a higher ranking.

If you visit the realty.com site directly (Not suggesting this is a
workaround, see thread), then type it in, Safari remembers it and gives it
higher priority. This seems to be a quirk of a “first visit” UX - it still is
meaningful to anyone who has competitors with similar names, and I’d call it a
bug to not check the domain first, though assuming good intent, maybe it does,
but something about that domain is not right for some heuristic (HSTS,
something else?)

~~~
cortesoft
How do you 'visit the realty.com' site directly if it won't let you type the
exact url and go to it?

~~~
codezero
That’s the bug. I’m not saying it’s not broken, it totally is. I’m explaining
why it’s doing what it does from the UX available, in an attempt to
differentiate between bad UX/design and some malicious thing done by Apple to
a specific website.

~~~
ljcus10
I think somehow Apple is getting monetized by Safari suggestions and is
stealing this traffic from sites like Realty.com and getting paid by Fortune
500 companies like Realtor.com

~~~
codezero
I doubt it. I’m sure they are monetizing things associated with it and they
should, but Apple would get dragged if they were doing something shady, or
maybe not, Google does this and only HN is annoyed (paid results, AMP,
licensing google to FF etc. )

~~~
enchiladanacho
How many other businesses are getting screwed by this? Are you saying it’s
okay because “oh other companies kinda do the same thing”... come on... direct
domain search goes to another domain.... that’s bad, super bad. Are they
censoring other searches by deciding what you should and shouldn’t see? I
don’t want to be all “conspiracy theory” here but come on... this is a
problem, just admit it.

