On: Google’s Chrome Becomes Web ‘Gatekeeper’ and Rival...

[javagram]

> - The Omnibar. To this day, FF persists with the two-box model where one is technically for URLs and the other for search. No one wants that of course so search basically works in the URL box. Why they don't just merge this is beyond me.

Privacy. Google doesn't worry about privacy, of course, but firefox tries to avoid sending all the URLs you ever type to google or your alternate search suggestion provider.

[mft_ → javagram]

Isn't that just a bit of code to fix?

if (s matches possibly valid URL pattern) then try to open it else send s to search provider

[javagram → mft_]

Searches are sent as you type, so it's not really that simple.

Firefox already does what you suggested when hitting enter in the default URL bar - if it's not a valid URL, it gets used as a search.

FWIW, I now see search bar has been off by default in firefox for the last 2 years (still grandfathered in for legacy users like me), so I think mozilla gave up on this. https://www.ghacks.net/2017/09/09/firefox-57-search-bar-off-...

[iggldiggl → javagram]

> Searches are sent as you type, so it's not really that simple.

You might also very well end up with something that is not a valid URL when searching in your local history or bookmarks.