Going to an address with a space results in a Google query

Type in "foo bar" on your address bar, and your Tor Browser will launch a google query.

It defaults to google and does not change to whatever search engine is selected in the search box.

Reported at https://blog.torproject.org/blog/new-tor-browser-bundles-17#comment-15623

added MikePerry201207 actualpoints::1 component::firefox patch issues owner::mikeperry points::1 priority::high resolution::fixed status::closed tbb-usability type::defect labels

Sorry for taking over your bug; I was just filing this one too. :)

Trac:
Component: - Select a component to Firefox Patch Issues
Reporter: cypherpunks to arma
Summary: Search using address bar uses google to Going to an address with a space results in a Google query
Description: When using the address bar, it defaults to google and does not change to whatever search engine is selected in the search box.

to

Type in "foo bar" on your address bar, and your Tor Browser will launch a google query.

It defaults to google and does not change to whatever search engine is selected in the search box.
Owner: N/A to mikeperry

Trac:
Description: Type in "foo bar" on your address bar, and your Tor Browser will launch a google query.

It defaults to google and does not change to whatever search engine is selected in the search box.

to

Type in "foo bar" on your address bar, and your Tor Browser will launch a google query.

It defaults to google and does not change to whatever search engine is selected in the search box.

Reported at https://blog.torproject.org/blog/new-tor-browser-bundles-17#comment-15623

Sounds like it could be about:config browser.search.suggest.enabled.

Trac:
Username: marshray

Replying to marshray:

Sounds like it could be about:config browser.search.suggest.enabled.

That's disabled in my TBB already, isn't it?

When I change browser.search.defaultenginename to "Startpage", I get a popup "The URL is not valid and cannot be loaded." So at least I can break the google part. :)

It's keyword.enabled then.

I also set browser.fixup.alternate.enabled to false if it's not already.

With neither set, typing "dogs" in the address bar searches Google. With keyword.enabled false, typing "dogs" in the address bar takes me to www.dogs.com which redirects to a commercial dog products vendor. With both false, typing "dogs" in the address bar gives me an error "Firefox can't find the server at dogs."

Trac:
Username: marshray

#6117 (closed) was filed as the same bug.

Do we want to disable it or redirect it to Startpage?

Changing only the keyword.URL with this:

https://startpage.com/do/search?q=

is working

Trac:
Status: new to needs_review

Changing it to StartPage sounds good to me. The only reason I see not to provide this feature is the captcha.

Trac:
Keywords: N/A deleted, MikePerry201206 added

...the captcha?

The captcha from google. It's annoying. In my mind, that's the only reason to be concerned about this space -> query thing.

Pushing this out because it's still not clear what will happen with startpage yet.

Trac:
Keywords: MikePerry201206 deleted, MikePerry201207 added

http://petsymposium.org/2012/papers/hotpets12-1-usability.pdf mentions the captcha redirect prompt as a significant usability issue. Switching our url bar search default to startpage will eliminate the captcha warning for all but direct Google users, and #6424 (closed) will be for that case.

Trac:
Priority: normal to major
Keywords: N/A deleted, tbb-usability added

This is fixed by setting keyword.URL to https://startpage.com/do/search?q=. However, I can't figure out why Marsh's suggested pref changes don't allow me to search with a single word without a space (ie dogs). For my TBB, regardless of what I set for those prefs, that always results in an attempted SOCKS connection instead of a startpage query. I created bug #6503 (moved) for that issue.

Trac:
Points: N/A to 1
Actualpoints: N/A to 1
Resolution: N/A to fixed
Status: needs_review to closed

closed

changed time estimate to 8h

added 8h of time spent

mentioned in issue #6117 (closed)

mentioned in issue #6503 (moved)