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Firefox 3.1 Alpha "Shiretoko" Released
Just as you were getting used to 3.0, those Mozilla guys have announced 3.1's Alpha release. FTA "Built on the pre-release version of the Gecko 1.9.1 platform, Shiretoko includes a variety of new features. Called an 'early developer milestone,' the release includes bug fixes, improved Web standards support, Text API for the Canvas Element, support for border images and JavaScript query selectors, and improvements to the tab-switching function and the Smart Location Bar." You can download it if you dare.
The awesome bar works a bit like google pagerank, by creating associations between your partial input and the page you choose from the menu. If you write the initial letter of the desired URL and then click on the page you want to visit, it will (very) soon behave like the old URL bar.
it's only taken 6 years, but finally Firefox has the option to use the Mac OS X System specified proxy. here's hoping it actually works
TIAEAE!
I feel the same way. But it looks like they've made an effort:
If you prefer the results to always restrict to history and match only in the URL, you can go to about:config and change the corresponding preferences to nothing (edit the value and delete the special character). This way you can always be only searching your visited history and not worry about matching in the title.
The Javascript Query Selectors looks very interesting... I could really use that for unit testing.
The "border image" stuff has been a long time coming too... when I think of how many unnecessary nested tables I've had to build just because some suit wanted rounded corners of a certain color on everything, it makes me want to puke.
-1 Uncomfortable Truth
Seriously, here goes:
I *hate* having to type stuff into the address bar. I only have about 20 entries in the browser history, but when I put FF3 on, most of those suddenly vanished and the only way I could get back to Slashdot was to type it in.
I don't want to type it in everytime I want to go there, why can't I just click on the fucking drop down arrow and look for it there, instead of typing in s.l.a.s until it finally comes up, then having to press the down arrow and hitting return. I could have found slashdot in 2 clicks and perhaps one scroll of the mousewheel.
I don't want to type in scummvm and get back 20 results of random pages containing the word scummvm but not a single one pointing to the main site.
In defence of the Awesome bar, I only used it for about an hour before dismissing it, but I reckon 1 hour is enough...
Summation 2
The rendering seems faster (not that it was slow in 3.0.1). Still doesn't pass Acid3, though ;)
That worked just fine in FF2. Now when I type s I get "eBay - New & used electronics, cars, apparel, collectibles, sporting goods & more at low prices". I bought something online recently. God only knows how long it will take their ridiculous 'frecency' algorithm to realize I only go to eBay once in a while. Nothing like unpredictable, unreliable behavior to make a feature suck. Thanks, awesomebar!
The awesomebar learns, and if you use it for a while, the sites you use most will move up the list.
Anyway, if you had about 20 entries you used in the dropdown list, why not use bookmarks on the toolbar? Keep the titles short, and you can fit in a fair number, and a folder or two goes a long way. If sites have recognizable favicons, you could even remove the titles and fit in a lot more.
Climate Progress - Hell and High Water
If you only have 20 places you want to go, that's what the bookmarks toolbar is for. It has a "most visited" dropdown by default, and room for at least 15 or so one click launches if you keen the names short.
Blessed are the pessimists, for they have made backups.
Canvas is part of HTML5, which was created by WHATWG. WHATWG is now part of the W3C, so canvas is a specification coming from the W3C. If you don't want canvas in web browsers, take it up with WHATWG and W3C, not Mozilla developers.
What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
If there are items you want to eliminate from the Awesome Bar results, scroll down and hit delete.
You might try setting browser.urlbar.matchOnlyTyped in about:config to true. I believe that makes it do what you desire.
upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
No it doesn't, all that setting does is remove from the results your bookmarks and links you have clicked on (I think) - it still searches the titles of pages you have entered the URL for.
I didn't use Firefox 2, so I don't know the exact functionality, but I don't think it takes much to get the "Awesome Bar" like people seem to want (matches only at the beginning of URL, no match on titles).
First install the Hide Unvisited extension. Next, set "browser.urlbar.search.chunkSize = 0" in about:config. Last, add the following to your "userChrome.css" file: