MozillaWiki - User contributions [en]

Firefox/Feature Brainstorming:Addressbar

2008-07-27T14:06:14Z

Kmukund87:

{{FeatureBrainstorming}}

== Domain AutoComplete/AutoCorrect ==
It would be a fantastic feature if domains were to auto correct. For example, if I were to type firefox.cm, Firefox 3 would automatically change it to firefox.com. Or if I typed in firefox.ocm, or firefox.rog. Basically, any domain ending that is not registered should be given a "most likely intent". The difficulty falls on addresses such as firefox.co.uk. If I typed firefox.co, did I mean firefox.com or firefox.co.uk? In any case, I think this would be a great feature.

I thing that autocomplete could only complete the main address of a website. For example, if you type the domain www.orkut.com, the text automaticaly is completed with the last page visited, and you need to erase the entire content to go to the main page. Whem I'm using IE, I don't have this problem.

== 'Stripped' domain name option in the autocomplete list could be an easy and very useful improvement ==
I think - despite bookmarks and autosearch - there are still a lot of people, who use the addressbar to simply type 2-3 letters of the domainname they're trying to get to and then select the full url from the dropdown list. But if the startpage is not present in your recent history, you get bound to a lot of backspacing. By doing so, you're basically performing a task that the machine could do much faster: strip a simple string of everything behind the first slash character.
If the root url (eg. 'website.com' from 'website.com/thirtyrandomvariables') of every relevant history item would be showed in the list, that could make a lot of lives easier!

== Automatically try https ==
When a user types in "www.domain.com", the browser tries to connect to "http://www.domain.com". But if the site is on 443 instead of 80 the user gets an error. The browser should automatically try https:// after getting an error on http://

== Text search webpage on missing #anchor ==
When entering a URL ending with #foo, but there's no "foo" anchor on the HTML page, then search for the text "foo". This should use the same code as Ctrl-F (Ctrl-G would work afterwards).

That way, one could point (in a chat, or make a reference on another text) to any specific part of text on a page, even if the HTML author didn't put an anchor there.

This one is easy, no bloat added. Just few lines of glue code.

== Showing non-latin characters in address bar ==
When nonlatin characters are used in address they are urlencoded. Many sites use them. Wikipedia is an example. But URL shown in an addressbar gets totally unreadable, like
http://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%92%D1%96%D0%BA%D1%96%D0%BF%D0%B5%D0%B4%D1%96%D1%8F.

Such URL is not an easy thing write down on paper for example. It would be nice if such URLs were shown more like this (the non-latin part could be highlighted or formatted to prevent phishing):
http://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/Вікіпедія

; References
* [http://en.design-noir.de/mozilla/locationbar2/ Locationbar²]
: next to perfect

* Hi ! I don't know where to put this text :p Someone could transfer my request if it isn't at the good place !! ... I think navigation arrows are not so pretty... I think Firefox is better than IE for many reasons but not for its navigation buttons !! You should be more inspired (like IE7 arrows but with your own philosophy). What is missing too : text anti-aliasing and a real transparency of navigation adressbar under Vista. Perhaps you should remove the top menu (File Edition History...) in order to give more space for the pages. Sorry for the language I'm french ;) Thanks

== Auto-paging ==
* When a numeric portion of the URL in the address bar is highlighted, allow it to be incremented/decremented using the mouse wheel, PgUp/PgDn, scroll arrows, or some other method. E.g., <nowiki>http://www.example.com/photo1.jpg; highlight '1' and scroll to view photo2.jpg, etc.</nowiki>
** I personally think that this is feature that is best suited for an extension. There is a bookmarklet that does this for you, perhaps a fully featured exension as well. Located at: [http://www.squarefree.com/pornzilla/ Pornzilla] (Link does not contain NSFW content, apart from the name...)
** Go to the next Page: If the URL is something like .../search.php?page=1, ?seite=1 it would be usefull, that Firefox opens the next page (?page=2), when you press the Forward Button (or the Mouse Gesture for Forward)

== Searching from Location bar ==
* When typing in the URL bar, have an option in the auto-complete menu to search for the entered text at the user's choice of Google, Yahoo, Ask.com, etc. Note: this feature already exists in the Mozilla SeaMonkey browser. If the code is compatible it could just be copied.
OR
* Merge functionality of location bar and search bar: When typing in the URL, show both autocomplete and google suggestions (preferrably google suggestions first. Explanation: this helps a lot newbie users; also a lot of users tend to use the drop-down button to go to previously visited urls instead of using the autocomplete feature). Something like this (well not just like that, i just hidden the location bar and moved the search bar in place): http://tinyurl.com/yl24y3

* Bring back the simple, down-arrow functionality of the Mozilla suite address bar, where the user can type in words for a search and down arrow to send that term to the search-engine preference. It shouldn't be exactly like in Mozilla, but allow the user to switch what engine is default. Instead of always being Google, one could change it to Yahoo! or Wikipedia.
OR
* Set up like Mozilla suite where you hit down to search. Instead of only allowing Google, it could have a right arrow. When you put your mouse over it, it would expand to allow selection of search engine. It would be nice, again, to have the default engine selectable.
OR
* Simplify the search bar by replacing the text field by a set of icons, each representing a different search engine. Clicking on an icon causes the text field to appear with the cursor already in it so the user can start typing right away. This simplifies matters as...
:# The amount of clicks is reduced. At the moment the user needs one click if the correct search engine is already selected. The user needs two clicks if a different search engine is desired. The modification cab do with only one click in either case.
:# At the moment, when changing the search engine, the user has to click the old icon, then find the new icon and click on it. This search process causes a break in the work flow. If all search engine icons are present in the search bar, the user can find the desired icon immediately without re-orienting as is presently the case.
::Since this modification is quite a severe change that might confuse users, it should be optional.
OR
* There is already an extension to search in Google using a g: prefix in the location bar instead of http: or ftp:. It would be nice, if the user could configure prefixes for every web search engine in the web search manager (e.g. d: for dict.leo.org, w: for wikipedia).

== Autocomplete ==
* middle of word
* local filenames
* user's bookmarks
* using history frequency for relevance
* Further refinement (and strengthening of match) could be made by offering a list of likely alternatives, selectable via arrow keys in a drop-down menu
* using addresses for which a password is known, or are otherwise marked as 'trusted' (marked as allow script, allow cookie, allow xpi install, etc)
* all of above make autocomplete still useful after clearing private data or migrating from IE
* the ability to maintain an autocomplete list so that only desired URLs are autocompleted (a function in the interest of maintaining privacy, but leaving functionality)
* keyword bookmarks - when predefined word(s)/characters are entered into the address bar, the URL assigned to the keyword is loaded. For example entering 'slash' could load slashdot.org or 'go' could load google.com
* Make autocomplete function more like a shell's tab completion in that it matches the longest common substring. See [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=109758 Bug #109758]
; References
* Similar to AppRocket on Windows and Quicksilver for OS X
* [[User talk:bur#Autocomplete_URL|remarks from bur]]
* [https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/2300/ Autocomplete Manager] extension provides some of this

== Autocorrection ==
* Allow to correct automatically badly entered domain names (ex: www;domain;com instead of www.domain.com very often with the french keyboards) ;
* Allow to correct automatically badly pasted protocol (ex: ttp:// or hhttp:// or hxxp:// instead of http://domain.com.) ;
* Allow to correct automatically badly entered top level domains (ex: .xom or .comù or domai.ncom instead of .com) ;
* Allow to correct automatically badly entered sub domains (ex: xxx. or wwww. instead of www.) ;
* Allow to correct automatically recurrent typed adresses (ex: www.goiogle.com instead of www.google.com, www.imedia.biz instead of www.imedias.biz or www.youtube.net instead of www.youtube.com) by looking in the favorites and history ;
* Allow to transcode addresses entered incorrectly in different keyboard layout (e.g. Cyrillic цццюьщяшддфющкп to www.mozilla.org) ;

This could be implemented as a smart algorithm. Whenever the user types an invalid adress, Firefox remembers this and if the address typed in right after this is correct (by correctly pointing to a site) a match is created. If the difference is not too large between the wrongly typed one, and the correct one, this get's saved as a correction and will automatically execute.

Alternatively, string metrics can be used to find matches of already typed (and correct) URLs, and automatically redirect the user. Perhaps this is a cleaner solution.

Usually when an incorrect address is typed, the user knows almost immediately. Ingore pages that are only displayed for less than 5 seconds.

Alternately, it could be done as so:

When a page is entered into the address bar, and it is a dead link, it could pop down a yellow bar (like when a pop-up is blocked) and ask "Did you mean...?" It would show pages most like what you entered and could also allow for checking the google cache or internet archive of the page (in case it used to exist).

If it seems likely it was a misspelling (such as google.con instead of google.com) it could automatically redirect to it. It would still be nice to have the bar pop down, but this time to notify you what happened, similar to openoffice.org notifying you of any auto-correct.

== Provide basic site navigation from address bar ==
When I use news aggregation sites like slashdot and digg that provide deep
links to stories on other sites, I invariably find myself wanting to look
at the home page or perhaps even parent of the current URL.

It would be a very useful feature to provide hotkeys that manipulate the
URL in the addressbar. At least 2 operations spring to mind:
* get server URL
* get parent URL
; References
* See [https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/2933 Link Widgets]
** ...works best with ''Status Buttons 1.0'', basic site navigation buttons could be placed on the '''status line''' this way, so it's no longer «just taking away screen space» as the above fellow said.
;Alternative approaches to this problem
* [[User:siennalizard]]
;Cookie Crumbs approach
I've thought that the Vista, cookiecrumb approach would be good for something like this. Whipped up a quick screenshot:

[[Image:CrumbAddressBarOpen.png]]

I guess the shot isn't perfect, but clicking on an arrow should allow you to go back to that level of the site, and to navigate from there several levels deeper if you want. Clicking somewhere and typing should start filling in the URL from that point on.
* [[User:wjjohnst]]

== Contextual menu ==

It'd be preferable if there was a context menu with the following items in it for the awesomebar results. Most probably this would be best as an extension, and not in Firefox itself due to bloat or feature creep. It's not really an easy discover.

* Open
* Open in a new tab
* Delete from history
* Bookmark/Remove Bookmark
* Open Domain (Removes everything after the trailing / of a domain. Does not work for local results)

For the actual locationbar, this here is useful, and RESO WONTFIX, so use an extension.
*On right click, adding also a "paste & go" item

*

; References
* Like in Opera browser
** Note: Middle click already does this if you turn it on (and it's on by default on Linux)
* [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=216667 bug 216667]

== Location Bar should sort based on order visited ==
All major browser order the entries of the location bar based on last visited. Example: if I type "yahoo.com", then "google.com", the order is:
* google.com
* yahoo.com

If I then type "yahoo.com" again, the order is:
* yahoo.com
* google.com

The order also changes if I open the location bar and select an entry with the mouse.

Sorting this way worked in early releases of Firefox 0.9.X. There is a bug filed in bugzilla for which the fixing is postphoned from one release to the other. Please make sure that it is included in Firefox 2.5, 3.0 or whatever it is.
; References
* [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=258107 bug 258107]

== Keybindings ==
* Ability to customise what happens when ctrl-enter is pressed (command-enter for Macs) in the address bar and search bar. Some users want ctrl-enter to open a new tab. This will make the "ctrl == new tab" concept more pervasive. Currently, control-clicking on a link in a web page causes it to open a new tab. Also, most tabbed browsers open up a new tab upon ctrl-enter anyway, including older versions of Firefox itself. Whatever the default setting may be, it would be nice if the user could configure this. Also, some users want ctrl-enter behave just like plain enter. These users usually wanted to type ctr-v, enter, but accidentally held ctrl down too long, hence it gets registered ast ctrl-v, ctrl-enter.
* Also, same thing goes for option-enter (alt-enter(?) on Windows). The "option == download url" concept has existed in older versions of Firefox as well as other tabbed browsers. While option-click still allows download of links, it's hard to remember what the keybinding is for downloading from the url bar anymore since there is no longer a consistent concept behind it and not compatible with other browsers.
; References
* [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=237027 bug 237027]

== Allow AJAX/frames-based sites to change location URL ==

A problem with Frames-based and DHTML / AJAX sites is that the page contents
displayed can change but the location URL remains static, which impacts on the
user's ability to bookmark page contents.

For security reasons (e.g. to prevent phishing) it is not possible from
Javascript code to change the location URL displayed in the browser (except
perhaps to add/change a "#" value, which is of limited use).

I propose that it should be possible to change the URL in other LIMITED ways,
e.g.:

To any other URL with the *same* domain
AND/OR
To change the querystring

This could of course be configurable in the browser's Options, but one or both
should be enabled by default, to allow web developers to make use of this
feature to improve the user experience for most Firefox users.

Changing the "#" value, such as at [http://wikimapia.org/#y=44558001&x=38081274&z=15&l=1&m=a&v=2 Wikimapia] is only of partial use and has limitations.

== General Location bar improvements ==
* When the cursor is active and in the address bar <UP> will move the cursor to the start of the address string, and <DOWN> will move the cursor to the end of the string.
* Multi-line paste of URLs: When pasting a multi-line URL - such as when one copies a large URL from a text-only shell-based e-mail program - Firefox should automatically strip line breaks and elide what is pasted as a single line URL.
* I'd love a system similar to "Find as you type", but for the URL bar instead of the find bar. So in the middle of surfing a web page you don't have to click anywhere - you just start typing and it comes up in the location bar!

== SVG File as Favicon ==

Allow website admins/designers to use Scalable Vector Graphics files as Favicons. This allows the use of visually appealing favicons with transparency. This is also ideal for displays with high resolutions, allowing the display of larger icons on such displays without website admins/designers having to modify the icon files.

Right-click option to export favicon.

Javascript manipulation of favicon.

* I personally don't feel much for this, a SVG favicon would have to be really, really basic in order for it to look decent at 16x16. A bitmap image can be tuned to make it pixel-perfect, less so with an SVG. Firefox supports PNG, for transparency as well as animated GIFs for dynamic icons. I also wonder if anyone would use JavaScript to do fancy tricks with SVG favicons. Just my opinion, however. :)

== Highlight the domain name ==

Make the domain name within the URL bold or otherwise highlighted to reduce the spoofing risks of complex URLs.

; References
* [http://en.design-noir.de/mozilla/locationbar2/ Locationbar²]

I could even imagine a more flexible system that lets the user configure which font color he/she wants to use for protocol, domain, path, page and url-encoded parameters (maybe even one color for parameter and one for value). Those users, that don't like colorization can set all colors to black (or maybe black is the default).

== Show more security info ==

Show more security info for secure sites in the URL bar, such as the name of the company to which the cert was issued.

== Nice feature in IE ==

A feature absent from FireFox: When you click a link in IE, the page starts loading the page. Sometimes you have connection problems (etc.) so the page remains blank. In the interest of time, you can click "Stop" (to stop downloading the page), and when you do that, IE displays the the page's URL in the address bar, even if the page failed to load. This is absent from FireFox and you have to guess which link you clicked that isn't opening now.

Edited December 15, 2007, around 12:50 AM:▼ 
Uh, I Wanted to Add My Input Here, but I'm Not Sure if I'm, Correct in Doing so.
So Again, If I did AnYtHiNg Wrong here, Please Disregard and/or Remove; 1st time
here▼ 
Please Delete if Irrelevant/Redundant or Somehow Misplaced▼ 
Pardon Me, I would like to Add to this hopefully without being Redundant:
In Firefox, the Address Bar, Suffers from a few Acute Maladies.
For Instance, Focusing the Address bar isn't Noticeable sometimes as the Blinking Doesn't show up or takes sometime to appear; Usually does show if you Highlight something in it afterwards though. Another Malady is that what was stated above; Lack of Address when Page is Loading. It usually does come up, if at all, during Post Loading, But, what Happens if you Get redirected in Transit? How would you Know? They could take you to like, three places and you wouldn't know where you are or what you should do. Panicky Situation. Also, again if it already hasn't been stated, Sometimes your sitting there for like, 4 minutes and then Ff Says: Connection Timed out, Wish I could have done something 3 and a half Minutes ago, Like take the Sites address and try again later. Oh yeah, Trial And Error has Shown me that SomeTimes, Pressing that Go Arrow instead of Refresh, and/or along with a Combination of Overriding/Clearing the Cache, Actually gets you there then pressing the Refresh Buttons 10 times over.
Strange, eh?
Anyways, Something along the lines of: 
Always Display Site Proceedings In Address Bar 
Option should be an appropriate Remedy to Alleviate these Maladies.
It May also Alleviate that one Security Exploit about a JavaScript Command that Can Mimic the Address Bar into Hiding the True Address, that I heard about the other day.

== Another nice feature in IE ==

<strike>I haven't figured out what is the hotkey of the address bar</strike>, could you make it to be F4, just like IE, it would be easier to change the address. Or may be F2 because it's the hotkey used in several applications to change the name or text of anything. Or even you could allow the user to change every hotkey the way he/she wants it, Firefox its very popular for its customization, this would help even more.
:Edit:Err, sorry I found it F6, however the change or customization still stands for it.
:Edit:Also Alt+D works for the purpose, both in FF and IE, for ages now

== YubNub - YubNub.org ==

* Have Firefox's default addressbar searchengine set to YubNub instead of Google
* This can be done individually be changing keyword.URL in about:config from "http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&btnI=&q=" to "http://yubnub.org/parser/parse?command="
* If you're new to YubNub you'll notice, upon inspection that this is not as bad of an idea as you think it is because YubNub's default engine IS Google. SO:

If you send the string "firefox" to YubNub, you will be immediately directed to "http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/", just as you would with Google.
Also, if you send "wp firefox" to YubNub, you will be directed to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefox. (WITHOUT having to have a local "wp" keyword setting.
Essentially, using YubNub as a default would be a feature that would somewhat disrupt the Keyword Search feature, which in my opinion is a good thing because then talking about keyword search will be more standardized since all YubNub users will know the same one. "ls" lists the YubNub commands. "ls dictionary" list YubNub commands related to dictionary search.

== Detach Go button from Addressbar ==
In 1.5, you could move the Go button to the left of the Addressbar, but in 2.0 the button is locked to the right end of the Addressbar. The left is possibly a better place for it because (a) when you paste a URL in the Addressbar, as with right-click menu, your eyes and mouse are focused at the left end of the Addressbar; and (b) when you type a URL, it is more likely to be a short one than a long one and your focus is at the left end of the Addressbar (although, admittedly, if you're typing you'd likely hit the enter key instead of the Go button). Detaching the Go button from the Addressbar (as it was in 1.5) allows the user to customize it in this way.

== Ditch favicons for images ==
Whenever you load an image directly from Firefox, a resized version is used as the page's favicon. I have problems with this: 
1. It serves little purpose, '''especially''' when no tabs are open. 
2. The resized images are usually distorted (not every image has equal width and height) 
3. When high-res images (say a 1024x768 picture) are resized to 16x16, it slows the mouse down when the mouse passes over the resized image. Similar to how a page scrolls badly when a resized (via HTML) high-res image is on it. Very, very annoying.

== Better quick search ==
Make it the default that a quick search with no parameters goes the the home page of that website instead of doing a search for "%s". For example "yahoo mozilla" does a yahoo search for "mozilla". Just "yahoo" should go to "www.yahoo.com". Currently it goes to "http://www.yahoo.com/search?q=%s". I know that there is a hack around it. It would only take one line in the quick search properties, and not require any UI complications. [[User:Jon513|Jon513]] 12:21, 27 November 2006 (PST)

== Protocol part of URL is not editable ==
* Make "http://" or "ftp://" part of the location grey and not editable.
* An "empty" address bar should contain only "http://" grayed out.
* Whenever the user has entered more than one protocol in the location bar and keyboard focus is removed, remove the leading protocols in the location string. For instance "http://http://www.mozilla.org" should be translated into "http://www.mozilla.org". This has the implication that whenever the user has entered a protocol anyway, that protocol replaces the previous.
**I disagree with this idea on the grounds that it would disable the built-in search engine in the location bar. --[[User:Armaetin|Armaetin]] 13:47, 7 January 2007 (PST)

== Auto Fix Common URL Mistakes ==
;Summary
Firefox should correct typos in URLs that you enter in the address bar. For example, if you type mozilla.con, it should correct it to mozilla.com (asking first maybe or not??). This would help Firefox claim its the "fastest browser" due to the fact that the user won't have to fix the problem themself
* Should fix the most common domains such as: .com, .net, .org, .edu, .gov, and .mil, as well as the protocol (http:, https:)
*Should fix www if they type wwww or ww
*Should fix addresses a user types that omit the address extension (i.e. .com, .net, etc) and perhaps suggest valid options. This could also automatically select an extension if the page is already in the users history.
;Pro(s)
* This feature is one of those that would not be a nuisance and most people wouldn't even know about until they misspelled a URL (i think everyone misspells a URL once in awhile and some(me) do it alot)
*I know this could just stay a extension but i don't think it would be a large feature that would add "bloat" to Firefox and is very useful(URL Fixer=7 Kb).
;Con(s)
*The person isn't really learning to type better or type right because Firefox will just be fixing all of their errors
; References
* [https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/2871/ URL Fixer] Extension - Best Example
* [https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/501/ Firefix] Extension that only offers to fix after the site isn't found
* [https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1727/ urlSpell] Extension

[mailto:daytonlowell@gmail.com Email Dayton Lowell]

== Right-click deletion of each typed address in the address bar ==
Yes, we could always "clear" the address bar, but we can't delete each item we don't want on the list by just right-clicking and choose Delete or Archive. I always love the address bar list but sometimes other address listing are becoming not your favorite anymore. If someone might suggest that this should be put to an extension, please don't heed. We all know extensions are not always updated after each Firefox update, so it can't be "steady" in Firefox versions over time.
*Response from RyanVM: It should be noted, however, that one can currently use shift+delete to remove any entry from the autocomplete dropdown menu.

== Open tabs from the addressbar ==
Add a small button next to each URL in the drop-down window of the address bar that, when clicked, opens the selected site in a tab. Place the buttons on the right side of the bar for ease.

== Click once on addresses to highlight parts of address ==
Clicking once in the addressbar will highlight the whole address. Clicking-dragging - like one can do in IE - to select only part of the address will not work. In order to select part of text, one has to click a second time to deselect the whole address and then click a THIRD time to select part of the address. This is annoying.

My suggestion is that only one click be necessary to select part of the address. Or, if you want to go the IE way, two clicks. But three is too much ;)

== Auto-complete the address using a list of the 1,000 most popular web sites. ==

This would be fairly easy to implement (I guess) and would be a great benefit to me (and probably many others!) in that when you go to visit a PC that you have never used before you you want to go to a site that you visit fairly often, the chances are that it'll be in a list of top 1,000 sites on the web (or 2,000 or 3,000). It would be great if this would auto-complete, just like it does for sites that you've visited in the past. I guess the tricky part is choosing what are the most popular sites for your particular location, unless it simply chooses the most popular worldwide.

== When typing an address, lock firefox as 'on top' application. ==

I often lunch several aplications at once, and sometimes, when im typing web address, I'm interrupted by other aplication (for example a communicator, and its pop-up advertising). In that case I need to click the address bar again and finish typing. It would be great, if, for typing time, lock firefox as on top application, and after 'enter' key, unlock it.

<nowiki>I'd like to add, also preventing a webpage that was loading from stealing focus
from my typing in the address bar. Often I log out of some webmail portal and end
up at a search page (yahoo,MSN,Google,Etc) and midway though typing in my next address
find that the web page's Javascript has stolen focus and put the cursor in the
search field.</nowiki>

== Add "Up" button in address bar ==

The "Up" button is the only reason I still install Google toolbar, and seems like a good feature to integrate into the address bar. The button lets the user navigate up the URL (e.g., from "https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US" to "https://addons.mozilla.org" to "https://mozilla.org"). It would be great if this button could at least be included in the "Customize Toolbar" options. Thank you for considering this feature.

== Open Multiple URL's while Typing in Single Address Bar ==

I don't always bookmark some sites that I frequent. I will type them in the address bar. It would be nice if I could start typing a URL, then hit a button, and have that URL open in a new tab, but still be able to type more URL's, and each time I hit the button, they will open in a new tab.

== Go Button Always There ==

The go button has been removed from newer versions of Firefox to only being there half the time. It would be nice if it was there whenever there is an error page displayed, or permenantly like it used to be.

== SiteMap auto complete ==

The Address bar could suggest a list of subdirectories / pages when typing a domain name. So, when typing www.worldwidekitchen.com, the address bar would show pages from the sitemap, such as www.worldwidekitchen.com/members.asp or www.worldwidekitchen.com/blog/index.php. Could the browser dynamically read the site map files from a domain to produce this suggestion list ?

== Merge go refresh stop buttons ==
The "Go" button that was there previously in firefox 2 can be replaced by placing the refresh button next to the address bar in firefox 3 and renaming it as "Go" or "Refresh" or "Stop" depending on the page loading status. Also, the button can be made to have a change of the background color (in a decent way) so that the activity indicator can be removed. The reason is that all these buttons refer to the same nature of operation, namely loading of pages and therefore can be merged. On further merging the address bar with the menu bar, a single bar is enough for all the needs and space can be saved for a larger area for the webpage. Mine looks like this: |Back|Forward|Refresh|Stop|BookMarks|File menu|Bookmarks menu|Tools menu|Address bar|Search bar|Stumble|I Like it|Not for me|

All that in a single line. I have disable status bar (or you can choose to use "Auto Hide Status bar" extension) and have even more viewing area.

Firefox/Feature Brainstorming:Addressbar

2008-07-27T14:05:23Z

Kmukund87:

{{FeatureBrainstorming}}

== Merge go refresh stop buttons ==
The "Go" button that was there previously in firefox 2 can be replaced by placing the refresh button next to the address bar in firefox 3 and renaming it as "Go" or "Refresh" or "Stop" depending on the page loading status. Also, the button can be made to have a change of the background color (in a decent way) so that the activity indicator can be removed. The reason is that all these buttons refer to the same nature of operation, namely loading of pages and therefore can be merged. On further merging the address bar with the menu bar, a single bar is enough for all the needs and space can be saved for a larger area for the webpage. Mine looks like this: |Back|Forward|Refresh|Stop|BookMarks|File menu|Bookmarks menu|Tools menu|Address bar|Search bar|Stumble|I Like it|Not for me|

All that in a single line. I have disable status bar (or you can choose to use "Auto Hide Status bar" extension) and have even more viewing area.

== Domain AutoComplete/AutoCorrect ==
It would be a fantastic feature if domains were to auto correct. For example, if I were to type firefox.cm, Firefox 3 would automatically change it to firefox.com. Or if I typed in firefox.ocm, or firefox.rog. Basically, any domain ending that is not registered should be given a "most likely intent". The difficulty falls on addresses such as firefox.co.uk. If I typed firefox.co, did I mean firefox.com or firefox.co.uk? In any case, I think this would be a great feature.

I thing that autocomplete could only complete the main address of a website. For example, if you type the domain www.orkut.com, the text automaticaly is completed with the last page visited, and you need to erase the entire content to go to the main page. Whem I'm using IE, I don't have this problem.

== 'Stripped' domain name option in the autocomplete list could be an easy and very useful improvement ==
I think - despite bookmarks and autosearch - there are still a lot of people, who use the addressbar to simply type 2-3 letters of the domainname they're trying to get to and then select the full url from the dropdown list. But if the startpage is not present in your recent history, you get bound to a lot of backspacing. By doing so, you're basically performing a task that the machine could do much faster: strip a simple string of everything behind the first slash character.
If the root url (eg. 'website.com' from 'website.com/thirtyrandomvariables') of every relevant history item would be showed in the list, that could make a lot of lives easier!

== Automatically try https ==
When a user types in "www.domain.com", the browser tries to connect to "http://www.domain.com". But if the site is on 443 instead of 80 the user gets an error. The browser should automatically try https:// after getting an error on http://

== Text search webpage on missing #anchor ==
When entering a URL ending with #foo, but there's no "foo" anchor on the HTML page, then search for the text "foo". This should use the same code as Ctrl-F (Ctrl-G would work afterwards).

That way, one could point (in a chat, or make a reference on another text) to any specific part of text on a page, even if the HTML author didn't put an anchor there.

This one is easy, no bloat added. Just few lines of glue code.

== Showing non-latin characters in address bar ==
When nonlatin characters are used in address they are urlencoded. Many sites use them. Wikipedia is an example. But URL shown in an addressbar gets totally unreadable, like
http://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%92%D1%96%D0%BA%D1%96%D0%BF%D0%B5%D0%B4%D1%96%D1%8F.

Such URL is not an easy thing write down on paper for example. It would be nice if such URLs were shown more like this (the non-latin part could be highlighted or formatted to prevent phishing):
http://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/Вікіпедія

; References
* [http://en.design-noir.de/mozilla/locationbar2/ Locationbar²]
: next to perfect

* Hi ! I don't know where to put this text :p Someone could transfer my request if it isn't at the good place !! ... I think navigation arrows are not so pretty... I think Firefox is better than IE for many reasons but not for its navigation buttons !! You should be more inspired (like IE7 arrows but with your own philosophy). What is missing too : text anti-aliasing and a real transparency of navigation adressbar under Vista. Perhaps you should remove the top menu (File Edition History...) in order to give more space for the pages. Sorry for the language I'm french ;) Thanks

== Auto-paging ==
* When a numeric portion of the URL in the address bar is highlighted, allow it to be incremented/decremented using the mouse wheel, PgUp/PgDn, scroll arrows, or some other method. E.g., <nowiki>http://www.example.com/photo1.jpg; highlight '1' and scroll to view photo2.jpg, etc.</nowiki>
** I personally think that this is feature that is best suited for an extension. There is a bookmarklet that does this for you, perhaps a fully featured exension as well. Located at: [http://www.squarefree.com/pornzilla/ Pornzilla] (Link does not contain NSFW content, apart from the name...)
** Go to the next Page: If the URL is something like .../search.php?page=1, ?seite=1 it would be usefull, that Firefox opens the next page (?page=2), when you press the Forward Button (or the Mouse Gesture for Forward)

== Searching from Location bar ==
* When typing in the URL bar, have an option in the auto-complete menu to search for the entered text at the user's choice of Google, Yahoo, Ask.com, etc. Note: this feature already exists in the Mozilla SeaMonkey browser. If the code is compatible it could just be copied.
OR
* Merge functionality of location bar and search bar: When typing in the URL, show both autocomplete and google suggestions (preferrably google suggestions first. Explanation: this helps a lot newbie users; also a lot of users tend to use the drop-down button to go to previously visited urls instead of using the autocomplete feature). Something like this (well not just like that, i just hidden the location bar and moved the search bar in place): http://tinyurl.com/yl24y3

* Bring back the simple, down-arrow functionality of the Mozilla suite address bar, where the user can type in words for a search and down arrow to send that term to the search-engine preference. It shouldn't be exactly like in Mozilla, but allow the user to switch what engine is default. Instead of always being Google, one could change it to Yahoo! or Wikipedia.
OR
* Set up like Mozilla suite where you hit down to search. Instead of only allowing Google, it could have a right arrow. When you put your mouse over it, it would expand to allow selection of search engine. It would be nice, again, to have the default engine selectable.
OR
* Simplify the search bar by replacing the text field by a set of icons, each representing a different search engine. Clicking on an icon causes the text field to appear with the cursor already in it so the user can start typing right away. This simplifies matters as...
:# The amount of clicks is reduced. At the moment the user needs one click if the correct search engine is already selected. The user needs two clicks if a different search engine is desired. The modification cab do with only one click in either case.
:# At the moment, when changing the search engine, the user has to click the old icon, then find the new icon and click on it. This search process causes a break in the work flow. If all search engine icons are present in the search bar, the user can find the desired icon immediately without re-orienting as is presently the case.
::Since this modification is quite a severe change that might confuse users, it should be optional.
OR
* There is already an extension to search in Google using a g: prefix in the location bar instead of http: or ftp:. It would be nice, if the user could configure prefixes for every web search engine in the web search manager (e.g. d: for dict.leo.org, w: for wikipedia).

== Autocomplete ==
* middle of word
* local filenames
* user's bookmarks
* using history frequency for relevance
* Further refinement (and strengthening of match) could be made by offering a list of likely alternatives, selectable via arrow keys in a drop-down menu
* using addresses for which a password is known, or are otherwise marked as 'trusted' (marked as allow script, allow cookie, allow xpi install, etc)
* all of above make autocomplete still useful after clearing private data or migrating from IE
* the ability to maintain an autocomplete list so that only desired URLs are autocompleted (a function in the interest of maintaining privacy, but leaving functionality)
* keyword bookmarks - when predefined word(s)/characters are entered into the address bar, the URL assigned to the keyword is loaded. For example entering 'slash' could load slashdot.org or 'go' could load google.com
* Make autocomplete function more like a shell's tab completion in that it matches the longest common substring. See [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=109758 Bug #109758]
; References
* Similar to AppRocket on Windows and Quicksilver for OS X
* [[User talk:bur#Autocomplete_URL|remarks from bur]]
* [https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/2300/ Autocomplete Manager] extension provides some of this

== Autocorrection ==
* Allow to correct automatically badly entered domain names (ex: www;domain;com instead of www.domain.com very often with the french keyboards) ;
* Allow to correct automatically badly pasted protocol (ex: ttp:// or hhttp:// or hxxp:// instead of http://domain.com.) ;
* Allow to correct automatically badly entered top level domains (ex: .xom or .comù or domai.ncom instead of .com) ;
* Allow to correct automatically badly entered sub domains (ex: xxx. or wwww. instead of www.) ;
* Allow to correct automatically recurrent typed adresses (ex: www.goiogle.com instead of www.google.com, www.imedia.biz instead of www.imedias.biz or www.youtube.net instead of www.youtube.com) by looking in the favorites and history ;
* Allow to transcode addresses entered incorrectly in different keyboard layout (e.g. Cyrillic цццюьщяшддфющкп to www.mozilla.org) ;

This could be implemented as a smart algorithm. Whenever the user types an invalid adress, Firefox remembers this and if the address typed in right after this is correct (by correctly pointing to a site) a match is created. If the difference is not too large between the wrongly typed one, and the correct one, this get's saved as a correction and will automatically execute.

Alternatively, string metrics can be used to find matches of already typed (and correct) URLs, and automatically redirect the user. Perhaps this is a cleaner solution.

Usually when an incorrect address is typed, the user knows almost immediately. Ingore pages that are only displayed for less than 5 seconds.

Alternately, it could be done as so:

When a page is entered into the address bar, and it is a dead link, it could pop down a yellow bar (like when a pop-up is blocked) and ask "Did you mean...?" It would show pages most like what you entered and could also allow for checking the google cache or internet archive of the page (in case it used to exist).

If it seems likely it was a misspelling (such as google.con instead of google.com) it could automatically redirect to it. It would still be nice to have the bar pop down, but this time to notify you what happened, similar to openoffice.org notifying you of any auto-correct.

== Provide basic site navigation from address bar ==
When I use news aggregation sites like slashdot and digg that provide deep
links to stories on other sites, I invariably find myself wanting to look
at the home page or perhaps even parent of the current URL.

It would be a very useful feature to provide hotkeys that manipulate the
URL in the addressbar. At least 2 operations spring to mind:
* get server URL
* get parent URL
; References
* See [https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/2933 Link Widgets]
** ...works best with ''Status Buttons 1.0'', basic site navigation buttons could be placed on the '''status line''' this way, so it's no longer «just taking away screen space» as the above fellow said.
;Alternative approaches to this problem
* [[User:siennalizard]]
;Cookie Crumbs approach
I've thought that the Vista, cookiecrumb approach would be good for something like this. Whipped up a quick screenshot:

[[Image:CrumbAddressBarOpen.png]]

I guess the shot isn't perfect, but clicking on an arrow should allow you to go back to that level of the site, and to navigate from there several levels deeper if you want. Clicking somewhere and typing should start filling in the URL from that point on.
* [[User:wjjohnst]]

== Contextual menu ==

It'd be preferable if there was a context menu with the following items in it for the awesomebar results. Most probably this would be best as an extension, and not in Firefox itself due to bloat or feature creep. It's not really an easy discover.

* Open
* Open in a new tab
* Delete from history
* Bookmark/Remove Bookmark
* Open Domain (Removes everything after the trailing / of a domain. Does not work for local results)

For the actual locationbar, this here is useful, and RESO WONTFIX, so use an extension.
*On right click, adding also a "paste & go" item

*

; References
* Like in Opera browser
** Note: Middle click already does this if you turn it on (and it's on by default on Linux)
* [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=216667 bug 216667]

== Location Bar should sort based on order visited ==
All major browser order the entries of the location bar based on last visited. Example: if I type "yahoo.com", then "google.com", the order is:
* google.com
* yahoo.com

If I then type "yahoo.com" again, the order is:
* yahoo.com
* google.com

The order also changes if I open the location bar and select an entry with the mouse.

Sorting this way worked in early releases of Firefox 0.9.X. There is a bug filed in bugzilla for which the fixing is postphoned from one release to the other. Please make sure that it is included in Firefox 2.5, 3.0 or whatever it is.
; References
* [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=258107 bug 258107]

== Keybindings ==
* Ability to customise what happens when ctrl-enter is pressed (command-enter for Macs) in the address bar and search bar. Some users want ctrl-enter to open a new tab. This will make the "ctrl == new tab" concept more pervasive. Currently, control-clicking on a link in a web page causes it to open a new tab. Also, most tabbed browsers open up a new tab upon ctrl-enter anyway, including older versions of Firefox itself. Whatever the default setting may be, it would be nice if the user could configure this. Also, some users want ctrl-enter behave just like plain enter. These users usually wanted to type ctr-v, enter, but accidentally held ctrl down too long, hence it gets registered ast ctrl-v, ctrl-enter.
* Also, same thing goes for option-enter (alt-enter(?) on Windows). The "option == download url" concept has existed in older versions of Firefox as well as other tabbed browsers. While option-click still allows download of links, it's hard to remember what the keybinding is for downloading from the url bar anymore since there is no longer a consistent concept behind it and not compatible with other browsers.
; References
* [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=237027 bug 237027]

== Allow AJAX/frames-based sites to change location URL ==

A problem with Frames-based and DHTML / AJAX sites is that the page contents
displayed can change but the location URL remains static, which impacts on the
user's ability to bookmark page contents.

For security reasons (e.g. to prevent phishing) it is not possible from
Javascript code to change the location URL displayed in the browser (except
perhaps to add/change a "#" value, which is of limited use).

I propose that it should be possible to change the URL in other LIMITED ways,
e.g.:

To any other URL with the *same* domain
AND/OR
To change the querystring

This could of course be configurable in the browser's Options, but one or both
should be enabled by default, to allow web developers to make use of this
feature to improve the user experience for most Firefox users.

Changing the "#" value, such as at [http://wikimapia.org/#y=44558001&x=38081274&z=15&l=1&m=a&v=2 Wikimapia] is only of partial use and has limitations.

== General Location bar improvements ==
* When the cursor is active and in the address bar <UP> will move the cursor to the start of the address string, and <DOWN> will move the cursor to the end of the string.
* Multi-line paste of URLs: When pasting a multi-line URL - such as when one copies a large URL from a text-only shell-based e-mail program - Firefox should automatically strip line breaks and elide what is pasted as a single line URL.
* I'd love a system similar to "Find as you type", but for the URL bar instead of the find bar. So in the middle of surfing a web page you don't have to click anywhere - you just start typing and it comes up in the location bar!

== SVG File as Favicon ==

Allow website admins/designers to use Scalable Vector Graphics files as Favicons. This allows the use of visually appealing favicons with transparency. This is also ideal for displays with high resolutions, allowing the display of larger icons on such displays without website admins/designers having to modify the icon files.

Right-click option to export favicon.

Javascript manipulation of favicon.

* I personally don't feel much for this, a SVG favicon would have to be really, really basic in order for it to look decent at 16x16. A bitmap image can be tuned to make it pixel-perfect, less so with an SVG. Firefox supports PNG, for transparency as well as animated GIFs for dynamic icons. I also wonder if anyone would use JavaScript to do fancy tricks with SVG favicons. Just my opinion, however. :)

== Highlight the domain name ==

Make the domain name within the URL bold or otherwise highlighted to reduce the spoofing risks of complex URLs.

; References
* [http://en.design-noir.de/mozilla/locationbar2/ Locationbar²]

I could even imagine a more flexible system that lets the user configure which font color he/she wants to use for protocol, domain, path, page and url-encoded parameters (maybe even one color for parameter and one for value). Those users, that don't like colorization can set all colors to black (or maybe black is the default).

== Show more security info ==

Show more security info for secure sites in the URL bar, such as the name of the company to which the cert was issued.

== Nice feature in IE ==

A feature absent from FireFox: When you click a link in IE, the page starts loading the page. Sometimes you have connection problems (etc.) so the page remains blank. In the interest of time, you can click "Stop" (to stop downloading the page), and when you do that, IE displays the the page's URL in the address bar, even if the page failed to load. This is absent from FireFox and you have to guess which link you clicked that isn't opening now.

Edited December 15, 2007, around 12:50 AM:▼ 
Uh, I Wanted to Add My Input Here, but I'm Not Sure if I'm, Correct in Doing so.
So Again, If I did AnYtHiNg Wrong here, Please Disregard and/or Remove; 1st time
here▼ 
Please Delete if Irrelevant/Redundant or Somehow Misplaced▼ 
Pardon Me, I would like to Add to this hopefully without being Redundant:
In Firefox, the Address Bar, Suffers from a few Acute Maladies.
For Instance, Focusing the Address bar isn't Noticeable sometimes as the Blinking Doesn't show up or takes sometime to appear; Usually does show if you Highlight something in it afterwards though. Another Malady is that what was stated above; Lack of Address when Page is Loading. It usually does come up, if at all, during Post Loading, But, what Happens if you Get redirected in Transit? How would you Know? They could take you to like, three places and you wouldn't know where you are or what you should do. Panicky Situation. Also, again if it already hasn't been stated, Sometimes your sitting there for like, 4 minutes and then Ff Says: Connection Timed out, Wish I could have done something 3 and a half Minutes ago, Like take the Sites address and try again later. Oh yeah, Trial And Error has Shown me that SomeTimes, Pressing that Go Arrow instead of Refresh, and/or along with a Combination of Overriding/Clearing the Cache, Actually gets you there then pressing the Refresh Buttons 10 times over.
Strange, eh?
Anyways, Something along the lines of: 
Always Display Site Proceedings In Address Bar 
Option should be an appropriate Remedy to Alleviate these Maladies.
It May also Alleviate that one Security Exploit about a JavaScript Command that Can Mimic the Address Bar into Hiding the True Address, that I heard about the other day.

== Another nice feature in IE ==

<strike>I haven't figured out what is the hotkey of the address bar</strike>, could you make it to be F4, just like IE, it would be easier to change the address. Or may be F2 because it's the hotkey used in several applications to change the name or text of anything. Or even you could allow the user to change every hotkey the way he/she wants it, Firefox its very popular for its customization, this would help even more.
:Edit:Err, sorry I found it F6, however the change or customization still stands for it.
:Edit:Also Alt+D works for the purpose, both in FF and IE, for ages now

== YubNub - YubNub.org ==

* Have Firefox's default addressbar searchengine set to YubNub instead of Google
* This can be done individually be changing keyword.URL in about:config from "http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&btnI=&q=" to "http://yubnub.org/parser/parse?command="
* If you're new to YubNub you'll notice, upon inspection that this is not as bad of an idea as you think it is because YubNub's default engine IS Google. SO:

If you send the string "firefox" to YubNub, you will be immediately directed to "http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/", just as you would with Google.
Also, if you send "wp firefox" to YubNub, you will be directed to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefox. (WITHOUT having to have a local "wp" keyword setting.
Essentially, using YubNub as a default would be a feature that would somewhat disrupt the Keyword Search feature, which in my opinion is a good thing because then talking about keyword search will be more standardized since all YubNub users will know the same one. "ls" lists the YubNub commands. "ls dictionary" list YubNub commands related to dictionary search.

== Detach Go button from Addressbar ==
In 1.5, you could move the Go button to the left of the Addressbar, but in 2.0 the button is locked to the right end of the Addressbar. The left is possibly a better place for it because (a) when you paste a URL in the Addressbar, as with right-click menu, your eyes and mouse are focused at the left end of the Addressbar; and (b) when you type a URL, it is more likely to be a short one than a long one and your focus is at the left end of the Addressbar (although, admittedly, if you're typing you'd likely hit the enter key instead of the Go button). Detaching the Go button from the Addressbar (as it was in 1.5) allows the user to customize it in this way.

== Ditch favicons for images ==
Whenever you load an image directly from Firefox, a resized version is used as the page's favicon. I have problems with this: 
1. It serves little purpose, '''especially''' when no tabs are open. 
2. The resized images are usually distorted (not every image has equal width and height) 
3. When high-res images (say a 1024x768 picture) are resized to 16x16, it slows the mouse down when the mouse passes over the resized image. Similar to how a page scrolls badly when a resized (via HTML) high-res image is on it. Very, very annoying.

== Better quick search ==
Make it the default that a quick search with no parameters goes the the home page of that website instead of doing a search for "%s". For example "yahoo mozilla" does a yahoo search for "mozilla". Just "yahoo" should go to "www.yahoo.com". Currently it goes to "http://www.yahoo.com/search?q=%s". I know that there is a hack around it. It would only take one line in the quick search properties, and not require any UI complications. [[User:Jon513|Jon513]] 12:21, 27 November 2006 (PST)

== Protocol part of URL is not editable ==
* Make "http://" or "ftp://" part of the location grey and not editable.
* An "empty" address bar should contain only "http://" grayed out.
* Whenever the user has entered more than one protocol in the location bar and keyboard focus is removed, remove the leading protocols in the location string. For instance "http://http://www.mozilla.org" should be translated into "http://www.mozilla.org". This has the implication that whenever the user has entered a protocol anyway, that protocol replaces the previous.
**I disagree with this idea on the grounds that it would disable the built-in search engine in the location bar. --[[User:Armaetin|Armaetin]] 13:47, 7 January 2007 (PST)

== Auto Fix Common URL Mistakes ==
;Summary
Firefox should correct typos in URLs that you enter in the address bar. For example, if you type mozilla.con, it should correct it to mozilla.com (asking first maybe or not??). This would help Firefox claim its the "fastest browser" due to the fact that the user won't have to fix the problem themself
* Should fix the most common domains such as: .com, .net, .org, .edu, .gov, and .mil, as well as the protocol (http:, https:)
*Should fix www if they type wwww or ww
*Should fix addresses a user types that omit the address extension (i.e. .com, .net, etc) and perhaps suggest valid options. This could also automatically select an extension if the page is already in the users history.
;Pro(s)
* This feature is one of those that would not be a nuisance and most people wouldn't even know about until they misspelled a URL (i think everyone misspells a URL once in awhile and some(me) do it alot)
*I know this could just stay a extension but i don't think it would be a large feature that would add "bloat" to Firefox and is very useful(URL Fixer=7 Kb).
;Con(s)
*The person isn't really learning to type better or type right because Firefox will just be fixing all of their errors
; References
* [https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/2871/ URL Fixer] Extension - Best Example
* [https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/501/ Firefix] Extension that only offers to fix after the site isn't found
* [https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1727/ urlSpell] Extension

[mailto:daytonlowell@gmail.com Email Dayton Lowell]

== Right-click deletion of each typed address in the address bar ==
Yes, we could always "clear" the address bar, but we can't delete each item we don't want on the list by just right-clicking and choose Delete or Archive. I always love the address bar list but sometimes other address listing are becoming not your favorite anymore. If someone might suggest that this should be put to an extension, please don't heed. We all know extensions are not always updated after each Firefox update, so it can't be "steady" in Firefox versions over time.
*Response from RyanVM: It should be noted, however, that one can currently use shift+delete to remove any entry from the autocomplete dropdown menu.

== Open tabs from the addressbar ==
Add a small button next to each URL in the drop-down window of the address bar that, when clicked, opens the selected site in a tab. Place the buttons on the right side of the bar for ease.

== Click once on addresses to highlight parts of address ==
Clicking once in the addressbar will highlight the whole address. Clicking-dragging - like one can do in IE - to select only part of the address will not work. In order to select part of text, one has to click a second time to deselect the whole address and then click a THIRD time to select part of the address. This is annoying.

My suggestion is that only one click be necessary to select part of the address. Or, if you want to go the IE way, two clicks. But three is too much ;)

== Auto-complete the address using a list of the 1,000 most popular web sites. ==

This would be fairly easy to implement (I guess) and would be a great benefit to me (and probably many others!) in that when you go to visit a PC that you have never used before you you want to go to a site that you visit fairly often, the chances are that it'll be in a list of top 1,000 sites on the web (or 2,000 or 3,000). It would be great if this would auto-complete, just like it does for sites that you've visited in the past. I guess the tricky part is choosing what are the most popular sites for your particular location, unless it simply chooses the most popular worldwide.

== When typing an address, lock firefox as 'on top' application. ==

I often lunch several aplications at once, and sometimes, when im typing web address, I'm interrupted by other aplication (for example a communicator, and its pop-up advertising). In that case I need to click the address bar again and finish typing. It would be great, if, for typing time, lock firefox as on top application, and after 'enter' key, unlock it.

<nowiki>I'd like to add, also preventing a webpage that was loading from stealing focus
from my typing in the address bar. Often I log out of some webmail portal and end
up at a search page (yahoo,MSN,Google,Etc) and midway though typing in my next address
find that the web page's Javascript has stolen focus and put the cursor in the
search field.</nowiki>

== Add "Up" button in address bar ==

The "Up" button is the only reason I still install Google toolbar, and seems like a good feature to integrate into the address bar. The button lets the user navigate up the URL (e.g., from "https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US" to "https://addons.mozilla.org" to "https://mozilla.org"). It would be great if this button could at least be included in the "Customize Toolbar" options. Thank you for considering this feature.

== Open Multiple URL's while Typing in Single Address Bar ==

I don't always bookmark some sites that I frequent. I will type them in the address bar. It would be nice if I could start typing a URL, then hit a button, and have that URL open in a new tab, but still be able to type more URL's, and each time I hit the button, they will open in a new tab.

== Go Button Always There ==

The go button has been removed from newer versions of Firefox to only being there half the time. It would be nice if it was there whenever there is an error page displayed, or permenantly like it used to be.

== SiteMap auto complete ==

The Address bar could suggest a list of subdirectories / pages when typing a domain name. So, when typing www.worldwidekitchen.com, the address bar would show pages from the sitemap, such as www.worldwidekitchen.com/members.asp or www.worldwidekitchen.com/blog/index.php. Could the browser dynamically read the site map files from a domain to produce this suggestion list ?

Merge go refresh stop buttons

2008-07-27T14:01:57Z

Kmukund87: Merging of the stop refresh go and the activity indicator as they are all related and can save some space

The "Go" button that was there previously in firefox 2 can be replaced by placing the refresh button next to the address bar in firefox 3 and renaming it as "Go" or "Refresh" or "Stop" depending on the page loading status. Also, the button can be made to have a change of the background color (in a decent way) so that the activity indicator can be removed.
The reason is that all these buttons refer to the same nature of operation, namely loading of pages and therefore can be merged.
On further merging the address bar with the menu bar, a single bar is enough for all the needs and space can be saved for a larger area for the webpage.
Mine looks like this:
|Back|Forward|Refresh|Stop|BookMarks|File menu|Bookmarks menu|Tools menu|Address bar|Search bar|Stumble|I Like it|Not for me|

All that in a single line. I have disable status bar (or you can choose to use "Auto Hide Status bar" extension) and have even more viewing area.

Firefox/Feature Brainstorming:Add-ons

2008-03-29T18:44:31Z

Kmukund87: An idea about caching javascripts and using them like extensions

{{FeatureBrainstorming}}

''What's the difference between 'Add-on management' and 'Add-on manager'?''

== Add-on management ==
* Version compatibility
* Options management
* Integration with AMO
* Make extensions "cleanware". Let all of their configuration lie in their own file directory instead of mashing it together with other extensions' configuration in One Big File. This reeks of Windows' "Registry Hell". Cleanly uninstalling an extension should be as simple as deleting its subdirectory.
* Extensions should have compatibility mode to allow older extensions to run when a new revision of firefox is released and extension is not available. Maybe offer a "force install" to see if an out of revision extension will work.
** See ''Nightly Tester Tools'' extension that is able to force such install mode over any given extension (or at least over most of them).
***If this doesn't cause any problems in Firefox, then yes, backwards compatibility with old extensions is needed. --[[User:Armaetin|Armaetin]] 17:46, 24 January 2007 (PST)
*Should be able to view date and time that extension was added, and sort extensions by that date (to aid debugging, by removing extensions in reverse order, until a recently-seen problem ceases to exist). Andy Mabbett
* Offer a program that allows users to merely alter the color scheme of the Firefox. All gloss effects and UI aesthetics remain, save for the change in color. Once the desired hue is selected, it's as easy as naming, then applying that theme. The program takes care of the rest.
** This sort of option should be kept as an extension for FF, as when you add too many sorts of options like this, you end up with a browser that has too much in it (akin to [eek!] IE). --[[User:FlyingIsFun1217|FlyingIsFun1217]] 14:06, 1 January 2007 (PST)
***Options are good, but this is unnecessary. Keep this as an add-on. --[[User:Armaetin|Armaetin]] 17:46, 24 January 2007 (PST)
* If it's possible, changing the theme without restarting (like it's managed in Songbird) would be great.
** As long as FF does not become adversely affected by this (things such as graphical artifacts that may be common when switching themes), I fully support this idea. Restarting can take long on a laptop with a slow hard drive :( --[[User:FlyingIsFun1217|FlyingIsFun1217]] 14:06, 1 January 2007 (PST)
**If there are no consequences to be concerned over, then I agree. --[[User:Armaetin|Armaetin]] 17:46, 24 January 2007 (PST)
* Since most extensions are of a small size, could extensions be mirrored on our hard drives in .xpi format? This way, one can open up the Profile folder, drag-and-drop all extensions into the Addon Manager and reinstall all extensions in case of a crash. This not only saves the user time and addons.mozilla.org bandwidth, it also reduces stress and frustration due to the loss of a profile and speeds up the restoring process. (thus preventing temptation from Opera and IE) If huge extensions start popping up, which I doubt, an about:config setting could be added to only mirror extensions that are less than a specific amount of KB. A plain text file/ xml file could be placed in the mirror directory with the names of excluded extensions.
* How about a Foxmarks-style feature that encompasses not just bookmarks, but extensions, themes, search-engines, and settings? New users could configure it on first-load, and old-users, when using different computers, could login and have their favorite stuff instantly downloaded and installed instead of spending ten minutes searching for everything. More details and mockups of the idea here: [http://www.hell-toupee.com/foxperience]
* When an extension is downloaded from an untrusted site, the user should be given a dialogue telling them that, giving details of the site (to prevent phishing), asking them if they really want to install it, and giving them an option to do so. At the moment, it just gets blocked, and the only way round it is to add that site to your list of trusted sites. This is not only really clunky, it's a security hole - just because i trust the site for this extension doesn't mean i want to trust it ever again. If it's thought that this is not a good default behaviour, it should at least be allowed as an 'expert/reckless lunatic mode'.

== Add-on manager ==
* When prompted to restart because installing/uninstalling Extensions (or plugins), don't prompt to "close tabs?" -- this interrupts the restart flow...
** Especially since the tabs are restored upon the restart of FF --[[User:FlyingIsFun1217|FlyingIsFun1217]] 14:19, 1 January 2007 (PST)
* "Update All Extensions" button
* Allow a non-root user to deploy extensions system-wide (on Linux)
* Provide changelogs for extension updates (Do I really want to update?)
** Yes! Yes, Yes, Yes! I don't like updating an extension and restarting the browser just to find out that it works in [insert foreign language here]. It just wastes my time (as does finding the changelog on the mozilla updates page.) --[[User:FlyingIsFun1217|FlyingIsFun1217]] 14:19, 1 January 2007 (PST)
* When the plugin finder doesn't find any suitable plugin, show a description for making easier to the user to find it (show data type?)
* «Visit Home Page» opens extension's home page in a new window; must have another context menu item to open it in a new tab.
** How about just letting the user change where all extension links (that appear in the add-ons dialog) open, maybe under an extensions tab in options? --[[User:FlyingIsFun1217|FlyingIsFun1217]] 14:19, 1 January 2007 (PST)
* Allow us to specify which order each plugin will sit in.
* Add a option to install plugin for Single User or All User mode while installing the XPI via the GUI.
* Swap '''any''' special feature to an extension and add an Extension Manager that works like the Eclipse Callisto Project, so Firefox would be lightweight '''and''' functional
* Ability to group extensions and themes into folders that can be enabled, disabled, and uninstalled as a group
* "Restart Firefox" button for updated extensions (not just for new installed extensions)
** See my comments under the update section of 'User Interface'. Maybe add a button that can be added using 'View->Toolbars->Customize' --[[User:FlyingIsFun1217|FlyingIsFun1217]] 14:19, 1 January 2007 (PST)
* Disabling of all extensions for specific sites. For example, at a bank you want to disable extensions to maximize security. Better would be built in, user-configurable, blacklisting and whitelisting for extensions. This would fit in with the Filter chains concept above (First stage in chain is a test for site with a 'return' target, {or first test in each stage for extension specific black/white-listing}).
* Keep "Options", "Disable", and "Uninstall" visible with each extension even when not highlighted, to avoid the need to change row height.
** Great idea. It can get somewhat annoying when you click on another item, and the whole layout seems to change. --[[User:FlyingIsFun1217|FlyingIsFun1217]] 14:19, 1 January 2007 (PST)
* Expand the Add-on manager to include sections for Plug-Ins, Dictionaries & Search Engines. [http://wiki.mozilla.org/Image:Add-On_Manager.PNG Add-on Manager Screenshot]
** Wonderful idea. If you add something like that for search engines, make sure that there is an easy way to create a new one (and not depend on some tool outside of the browser). --[[User:FlyingIsFun1217|FlyingIsFun1217]] 14:19, 1 January 2007 (PST)
* Simple suggestion: Typing the first letter of the add-on name should take you there, to avoid scrolling
* Ability to stop search for updates. Currently if an update search hangs on a particular extension, there is no way to interact with the manager without closing and re-opening it.
** Good idea. It would also allow dial-up users to stop checking for updates (which can be '''very''' time consuming)
* For the "Themes" tab of the Add-on manager, always keep the "Firefox (default)" theme on top, maybe with a separator under it, and then alphabetize the user-added themes below that.
*When switching themes, put a "Restart Firefox" button just like when you install an extension. I don't like to have the "save tabs on shutdown" option enabled, so a restart button saves me from remembering all of my tabs. There is one for after installing add-ons, so I don't see why there isn't one for switching themes, since it requires a restart.

== Remote extensions ==
* Support for remote extensions (i.e. dev tools package)
* Store XPI files in a central location so multiple users on the same machine do not have to download the same XPI multiple times. Maybe allow user to set location so only one download is needed for multiple users on a corporate network.
** Option when installing an add-on to install it for all users or the current user. Must have privileges to alter the user's settings.
* a complementary web service to store your extension profile in so you could customize your experience at public computers with a simple login
** I like the idea (as I'm sure quite a few other people do). If its possible... --[[User:FlyingIsFun1217|FlyingIsFun1217]] 14:21, 1 January 2007 (PST)

== Enable/Disable Add-ons ==
* Allow user to disable plugins via "about:plugins", Options/Prefs, or Extensions
* Dynamic loading/unloading of extensions. No more restarting just because an extension was installed/uninstalled/updated. (Like <tt>nglayout.debug.disable_xul_cache = true</tt>, only better.)
* How would you secure this? This seems a great way to share a virus
**Disabling extensions is now possible in Firefox 2.0.0.1. However, enabling and disabling an extension requires the restarting of Firefox. The dynamic installing/uninstalling of add-ons could allow an external program to force feed a bug into Firefox, but I don't see how that's possible with dynamic disable/enabling of extentions. --[[User:Armaetin|Armaetin]] 15:16, 31 December 2006 (PST)
*When disabling or uninstalling an add-on, put a "Restart Firefox" button just like when you add an add-on. I don't like to have the "save tabs on shutdown" option enabled, so a restart button saves me from remembering all of my tabs. There is one for after installing add-ons, so I don't see why there isn't one for disabling or uninstalling add-ons.

*Add an option to protect the enabling/disabling of a plugin with a password. This is essential to use firefox in a work/buisiness environment and it's also quite a nice feature for some specific plugins. For example; it is now easy to disable the adult filter plugins. For these kinds of add-ons, password protection is essential.

== Syncable Add-ons data/prefs ==
* Export/Import of Addons Information.

== Extensions Packs ==
* Firefox should support extension packs, in order to deliver a set of extension in a '''simple''' way. This is '''critical''' in order to add features without annoying the users with "hundreds of extensions" to find and configure.
** One of the main issues I've seen upon the adoption of Firefox is ''"to get Firefox working like <insert browser name here> I have to find and setup too many extensions... I'll keep <same browser name>"''.
* Have "Extension Packs" available for download immediately upon completing a Firefox install (also see "Installer" and "Uncategorized: Firefox Core/More" notes)
* '''Firefox Core/More''' solution (under [[Firefox/Feature Brainstorming:Other or Uncategorized|Other or Uncategorized]]) will handle both extensions packs on install, intuitive configuration and trust.
* Export/Save Extensions (as backup) used/installed.

== Restrictions ==
* Limit amount of Plugins/Addons from overwhelming the Interface. Allow Firefox to limit 2-20 lines of toolbars for real estate recovery. Have Arrow Up and Arrow Down at the start of the Toolbar rotator or use the scroll wheel (when mouseover the Plugin toolbar) to rotate between plugins.
* Prevent, limit, or allow user control over the way extensions add sub-menus to the right click menu (or whatever it's called). It gets too cluttered.
* Have an override (like shift + right click) to get firefox's menu instead of plugin menu. This would make it possible to save flash animations, or have a field for "stop playing flash", or have a volume adjustment for the plugin if the plugin / content doesn't allow this.

== Extension Crash Control ==
* Monitor the resource usage of the extensions, and allow Firefox to "take over" and terminate, suspend, or otherwise neutralize a misbehaving extension. At the moment, much of the Firefox "instability" is caused by a misbehaving extension, such as acrobat or flash, which is causing the whole browser to stop responding.
* Often when a flash plugin is handling a lot of data (like streaming website statistics), the browser can stop responding while the flash plugin is calcuating. In cases like this it seems that firefox needs to force-ably pause the plugin for a moment to allow the firefox main screen to refresh.
* Make the browser not become unstable after a plugin crashes.

== Plugins ==
* Plugin manager that can be used to disable or enable specific plugins.
** See [http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=479853&highlight=disable+plugin related post to mozillazine forum].
* Flash plugin to let the Windows version of Flash run using Wine (or similar.)
** Since the Linux version will always be several versions behind what is used on most web sites and honestly expecting this to change is bordering on insanity, provide a way to run the Windows version under Firefox.
* Fix the Flash Installation on Linux
** One always winds up having to do a manual install. If Firefox needs root permissions to do the install ask for the root password, don't just fail out.
* Allow 32-bit plugin in 64-bit Gecko
** requiring the full 32-bit stack needed by Firefox instead of the few dependencies actually needed by the plugin is ludicruous on 64-bit systems
* Better XPCOM debugging/introspection/build support
**Include some good xpcom query/introspection/debug tools in the distribution. Debugging plugins is painful (the debug build crashes under gdb for me - for those developers who think I'm whinging without rtfm-ing).
** Fix the build, it's a dog (I realize that this has been discussed before on bugzilla but this complicated and non-standard build you use is a real barrier to entry for new-to-firefox/mozilla programmers). It makes plugin development a pain (I can build .so files using the mozilla dist or the plugin sdk but firefox silently ignores them - I just want to know why).
* A function like blocking grafics also for Flash advertising. Block Flash from Host XYZ.
* Button "Don't show again" for Plugin bar... Sometimes I just don't want a plugin like Flash and don't want to be reminded on that on every page with advertizing.
* Support for executing a .NET Framework code.
* Bulk application reassignment (I want to be able to change everything from QuickTime plugin to something that works like VLC or MPC)

== Plug-in for non integrated formats ==
* Allow plug-ins to add support for file formats not supported by gecko (in ex. PDF, iCalendar, MS .doc files) or supported but needed to render differently (in ex. XHTML, feed RSS, IE rendering support)
* Change MozIStorage to enable different caching modes for different connections. This makes it possible to share data with external applications without data corruption.
* IMPORTANT ! Hi ! I constated that many website are using WMV or WMA (with or without DRM), I mean some majors music websites or some movies rental websites. And it is COMPLETELY impossible to use Firefox to see those websites because of lack of ActiveX. I know that ActiveX has been disabled because of security issues, and I know too that some add-ons are managing activex for Firefox (but it's not official add ons). You should create an official addon in order to enable activex use with security in FF3. (sorry for the language, I'm french ;)

== Various ==
* Send Theme name and version currently in use in the HTTP headers.
** Why? Why would a website owner, for instance, need to know what theme and version I'm using? Why would I want to release this information? [[User:J.B. Nicholson-Owens|J.B. Nicholson-Owens]] 15:27, 26 October 2006 (PDT)

== General tasks ==
* Improve extension installation/management UI
* Unify add-ons management (extensions, themes, search engines, dictionaries, plugins)
* Improve interaction design around customizing browser interfaces
; References
* [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=339056 bug 339056]
* [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=338074 bug 338074]
* [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=335781 bug 335781]

== Variable icon size ==
* Have an option for a theme to use svg images for icons so that users can adjust icon sizes. As it is now, I must provide 3 themes (e.g. -SphereGnome, SphereGnome_Big and SphereGnome_Jumbo) to present 4 icon sizes from 24x24-pixel to 64x64-pixel images.
* Have an option to use variable system icons. For example, my themes use 16px, 24px and 32px images for menuitem images, tab favicons, etc.

Maybe you guys could include some nice-looking themes from start? Maybe some more colorful themes than the default-theme in Firefox 2?

Maybe icons based on SVG, and so continuously resizable?

* Hello. I use LiteStep under WindowsXP, thus I am able to adjust my IconSize bigger than 48x48 Pixels. For now, I used a png-File, made a new ico-file with also a 64x64 icon in it and used Res-Hacker to replace the icon-group in the mozilla.exe file. -->> Although Windows XP nativly does not support icon sizes over 48x48 pixels, it would be nice if future Firefox versions would contain icons with a size above 48x48. I don't know, how many users would appreciate this, but on the other hand, it does not cost much. Same for Thunderbird and Sunbird. As much as I know, Vista will support icon-size over 48x48, so maybe you will do it anyway.

== Switchable background images ==
* Have an option for a user to choose background images supplied by a theme. Currently, I have four themes set up essentially to deliver different backgrounds. With variable icon sizes and switchable background images I could reduce my SphereGnome-based themes to two, and my Scribblies themes to one.
* Have an option for a user to choose no background image. A number of users request "plain" themes.

== Automatic Garbage Collection ==
* Have an automatic garbage collection for extensions to mitigate the memory leak problem of poorly built extensions. Deconstruct any objects created by extensions that are not referenced by anything. "Trusted" code from the mozilla should probably run as is to maintain performance.

==Theme editor==
* Please implement a visual editor for themes: the editor should be able to create new themes and edit existing themes ([[User_talk:Sante Caserio#Theme editor ideas]])

==Defunct extensions==
*The auto-update feature for extensions should include the self-removal of extensions rendered obsolete, e.g. when their functionality is incorporated in a new version of FF. [[User:Pigsonthewing|Pigsonthewing]]

==View new extensions==
*Instead of (or as well as) this view: https://addons.mozilla.org/search.php?app=firefox&appfilter=firefox&type=E&sort=newest there should be an option to view all the *new* extensions, most recent first (if this isn't the place to make such comments, lease move it there. Thank you.) [[User:Pigsonthewing|Pigsonthewing]] 08:14, 11 December 2006 (PST)
*Une extension so that Thunderbird is open when Firefox is open

== References ==
* [http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=197645 FAQ on forum]
* [http://www.extensionsmirror.nl/index.php?showtopic=1048 Extensions summary on TEM]
* [[User_talk:Autodmc#Lean_and_Mean_vs._Super_Install | "Extension Packs" from installer idea]]
* [[User_talk:Folletto#Firefox_Core_.2B_More | Firefox Core/More]]: addresses issues from many sides: usability, marketing, bloatness.
* [[User_talk:Topa#Import/Export_of_Addons_Information | Provide functionality to export and import addons-information using RDF]]
* [[Extension compatibility ideas]]

== Theme Options ==
* FF should provide themes with the ability to show an options dialog. A lot of themes ship with different options for URLbars, button shapes, etc. A lot of themes on AMO are even just repackages of the same theme with icon color changes.

**Ideally the theme could just provide FF with a list of optional stylesheets and descriptions of what they change. FF could display the options in the addons manager with the preview without adding another dialog level. Allowing different color themes (until SVG becomes usable) would require the ability to group and set default stylesheets.

== Rollback Extensions ==
* Keep the last n versions of an extension around and allow rollback if the user doesn't like the newest version.

== Combine Themes ==
* The ability to combine themes, similar to the behavior in [http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/8040/kg17li7.gif Ubuntu GNOME's theme editor]. It could allow the user to say "Use icons from theme x, use tabs from theme y, use window color from theme z". I would like this because there are some great themes out there, but most of them do not change the look of Firefox 2.0's tabs, which I do not like the look of. I would like to be able to use, say, [https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/7/ Qute] icons with [https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/3479/ Winestripe] tabs. --[[User:JohnnyK|JohnnyK]] 09:46, 4 March 2007 (PST)

== Parallel Themes ==
During my work, i usually can open a browser window dedicated to one topic and another one dedicated to another topic. each of these windows has a set of tabs inside it. it would be a good idea to apply a theme to the first window while keeping the other window with a different theme, effectively having "parallel" themes (like parallel processing). This will create a visual aid to help me know which mind thread a window (and all its tabs) belong to.
This of course could be pushed further if Microsoft allows me to define my own taskbar groups, so that i can have more than one group of FireFox in the taskbar, one for each mind thread.
--[[User:Mb2nd|Mb2nd]] 31 March 2007

== Custom bookmark with partially blank values ==
* I often feel the need to be able to insert, or replace values in an URL. Therefore it would be nice with a custom bookmark where I could set some of the URL as blank, and write that blank spot when I were to open the bookmark. An example could be:
** A YouTube user profile URL looks like: www.youtube.com/profile?user=kebakent
* I would like to write a username, and then visit that profile without worrying about the rest of the URL. So I could make a bookmark called www.youtube.com/profile?user=USERNAME and then be prompted for the username every time I opened the bookmark. Thereby I could visit any profile I would like. This would be practical in so many ways. --[[User:Keba|Keba]] 19:22, 8 December 2007 (PST)

== JavaScript cache ==
Pages like gmail and similar web 2.0 (and maybe future web 3.0) apps downloads huge amount of data everytime it loads. However if the javascript they use is simply stored in the user's computer like an addon, it is obviously going to be much faster. For example, the collection of all the gamil's javascripts and other files can be packed into a zipped file and be available for download. Any update by google can be available as a small change to the package instead of downloading the entire stuff again. Also, if some library like domTT is used in many websites, it wont be required to load the full library everytime as we already would have it installed in our firefox.

Javascript cache

2008-03-29T18:37:07Z

Kmukund87:

Pages like gmail and similar web 2.0 (and maybe future web 3.0) apps downloads huge amount of data everytime it loads. However if the javascript they use is simply stored in the user's computer like an addon, it is obviously going to be much faster. For example, the collection of all the gamil's javascripts and other files can be packed into a zipped file and be available for download. Any update by google can be available as a small change to the package instead of downloading the entire stuff again.

Javascript cache

2008-03-29T18:36:23Z

Kmukund87: Store and cache javascripts just like addons to load sites like gmail faster.