Address Bar Updates - Now Live in Firefox Nightly

[cbellini]

Exciting Updates to the Firefox Address Bar: Get Nightly and Test Them Now!Hello Firefox community! We're excited to share the latest updates to the Firefox Address Bar! These new features aim to improve your search browsing experience by making it faster, more intuitive, and easier to discover tools you already love. Whether you're a long-time Firefox user or exploring its capabilities for the first time, we’ve got something that’ll enhance your web experience. What’s New:

• Unified Search Button: A new, easy-to-access button in the address bar helps you switch between search engines and search modes with ease. This feature brings the simplicity of mobile Firefox to your desktop experience
• Search Term Persistence: Now when you refine a search in the address bar, the original term sticks around, making it easier to adjust your queries and find exactly what you're looking for
• Secondary Action Buttons: Ever needed to access more options for a specific result? These buttons allow for a streamlined experience, whether you're switching tabs or performing quick browser actions—all without disrupting your workflow
• Intuitive Search Keywords: You can access various address bar search modes with convenient and descriptive keywords (e.g. @bookmarks,@tabs,@history, @actions).
• HTTP As the Exception: For a more secure web experience, we'll now display the HTTP protocol prominently, so you know when you're on a non-secure site, while HTTPS will be hidden to reduce clutter.

How Does This Benefit You?

For our long-term Firefox users who appreciate the balance between power and simplicity, these updates give you more control and smoother navigation without overwhelming your current browsing setup.

For newer users, especially those looking for intuitive, fast-paced productivity, these features ensure you can search, switch, and perform tasks quickly, all while keeping privacy and user choice at the forefront. Your Feedback Shapes Firefox!

We’re inviting you to test these features in Firefox Nightly and share your thoughts. Whether you love how easy it is to switch search engines or have ideas for what’s next, your feedback will help us refine and perfect these features before their full release.

Join the conversation and let us know how we can continue building a better Firefox—one that respects your preferences, enhances your productivity, and keeps you in control.We invite you to join the discussion and help us shape the future of Firefox Search.

When sharing feedback, we'd also love to know:

• How long have you used Firefox?
• Is Firefox your default browser?

Happy browsing!

— The Firefox Search Team

[SouthFresh]

Obfuscating the URL should never have been considered in the first place. This is a security flaw and anti-user.

[Josh_B]

Hi sunny,

Thank you for the feedback. Are you on the newest version of Nightly? We uploaded a fix to the issue of the button interfering with double-click to highlight fairly recently. The Unified Search Button now only displays when the URL is modified or cleared from the addressbar.

[probablywrong]

After using this new unified search bar for several months, I have to say... I miss being able to use other search engines with one click. Type my query, all my other search engines appear below, I just click the one I want and it goes. Easy.

Now to use another search engine, I have to type my query, click the current search engine, click the one I want, then press enter.

I know it's a small thing, not that much work, etc, but it just makes me use other search engines less because I'm not even seeing them so sometimes I forget they're even there. They're all hidden away in some menu. The address bar expands with suggestions when you type anyway so it's not like you're saving space by removing the search engine suggestions from view.

Anyway, it's just one of those changes that now that I've lived with it for months, I can say that while it's not a massive deal or anything, I do think it makes the browser a little worse and I wish I could revert back. I understand the reasoning behind the change but I think Mozilla should rethink whether the aesthetics of hiding them away is worth the tradeoff. I'd put money on the amount of people using multiple search engines regularly has dropped since the change.