
Pivoting from conventional search to search-as-you-type: Our story with Mozilla - kkm
https://www.0x65.dev/blog/2019-12-11/the-pivot-that-excited-mozilla-and-google.html
======
ozten
I think this blog post could use more context in the first paragraph. I was
pretty confused until I completely read it and then skimmed it a second time.

Something like "We provide the awesome search engine Cliqz. We built a Firefox
add-on that enhanced the address bar with search-as-you-type results..."

Also, I wish their blog was at
[https://blog.cliqz.com](https://blog.cliqz.com) or
[https://cliqz.com/blog](https://cliqz.com/blog) as 0x65.dev isn't memorable
(for me) and the header lacks strong Cliqz branding.

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KingMachiavelli
Any SAYT can end up negating it's own time savings if there is any delay or
reprocessing of the search term. I'm sure it's happened to most people; when
using a SAYT system (such as Windows 10 search), you see your intended result
come up and attempt to select it but the search results update and change just
before you can reach it.

~~~
jjoonathan
My favorite is when I correctly type the next letter of my intended result
because I don't notice it in time to "cancel" the keystroke but Windows 10
search removes the result from the list anyway. Then I have to delete 3 or 4
letters to get it back for some reason. Ugh.

~~~
allovernow
Why does windows search suck so hard? I remember from day 1 it would totally
miss files on disk that I regularly used and searched for. I would type in
program names and it wouldn't find them even when they were accessable from
the start bar menu. But it would eagerly return useless web results. Who even
decided it was a good idea to add web search to the start menu?

~~~
carlinmack
Conversely the search in windows explorer has gotten much better on the
Insider Fast/Slow track. It does what you expect and searches down the path
almost as fast as Everything.

Before even in shallow paths you would type something, it would spin, you'd
press enter, you'd be brought to a big empty search results page that would
slowly find things.

I'm finding myself using Everything less and less.

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artyomavanesov
I like the focus on user intent. After all, the purpose of search is to
provide users with information, not present them with a list of search
results.

Recently I switched from Chrome + Google Search to Firefox + DuckDuckGo and
I'm pleased, surprised even, by how well this setup works. The user experience
is great and the search results of both setups usually correspond.

~~~
jszymborski
Whenever I fix or setup computers for friends/family, I sneak in Firefox +
DDG. Every time I've asked if they've noticed a change with "the internet" and
internet search, I've only ever got "nope" or "there's a duck now". No mention
of "it's worse" or "I want it changed".

~~~
artyomavanesov
It's because Google is so widely used that people are not aware of how good
the alternatives are/have become.

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sandoooo
Can somebody in the know chime in on this? _were_ there concerns over privacy
issues? Did Google apply pressure? etc.

Personally I find any sort of SAYT distracting and annoying and also an
unnecessary privacy leak, and I wish there's a way to turn off the awesome bar
altogether and just have a damn textbox for copypasting urls into.

~~~
tialaramex
With the search box separated the Awesome Bar appears to just do a local
search, so it is no longer a privacy leak and you can just paste URLs into it.
Having done this separation:

You can tell the Search box to not do SAYT (whereupon AFAIK it doesn't talk to
the search engine until you push go)

You can tell the main URL bar to not do SAYT over URLs from your history,
bookmarks etcetera as you prefer.

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Uninen
Yet another business blog that hasn’t got even _one_ link to the main product
or company homepage. Such a sad failure of so many blogs these days.

