Firefox 3 smart address bar: wildcard search

April 22, 2008 / Filed under: Firefox, Search, Features, Tips, Browsers

I love Firefox 3's smart address bar. Quite often I'll open a new tab and start typing the first few characters of a domain. In most web browsers, this type of character match only looks at the beginning of a URL.

So let's say I am trying to open this URL:

http://www.google.com/calendar/

In other browsers, I'd have to type the entire base domain first, then subsequent directories would load as I type the first few letters:

google.com/ca

This would be enough to pull matches for http://www.google.com/calendar/. This is a lot of typing though.

In Firefox 3, I can just type the beginning of the relevant word, calendar, to conduct a complete wildcard search:

Screenshot of Firefox 3

Notice it pulls any URL with the word "calendar" in it - no matter where it appears in the sequence of the URL.

The wildcard search in Firefox 3 also looks at the title element on a web page.

Screenshot of Firefox 3

Notice, in the above example, the search "bank" is not even in the Capital One URL itself. It only resides in the page's <title> element, but it's still enough to show up in the search results.

Of course, bookmarks solve this problem entirely, but sometimes I don't have time to bookmark every single site I come across each day, and may happen to visit again.

Comments/Mentions

# Andy at 4/24/2008 6:46 pm cst

So you're using your Capital One credit card to book a trip to Tahiti? make sure you put an entry on your....(wait for it)...calendar!

# Myers, Joshua R. (KingPunk) at 5/19/2008 11:06 pm cst

So, Dare I ask: how do you disable such an annoyance? I ABSOLUTELY HATE, LOATHE, ABHOR the "Smart Address Bar"!!

Thanks for the feedback! - KingPunk

# Deith at 6/17/2008 1:02 pm cst

yea, how the hell turn that thing down? How to disable this smart adress bar :/

# Teemu at 6/17/2008 4:05 pm cst

http://onlyubuntu.blogspot.com/2008/05/how-to-disable-smarter-address-bar-in.html

"How to Disable "Smarter" Address Bar in Firefox 3

The "smarter" address bar might be help for some people.if you want to disable follow this.

The first step, in the address bar, enter in about:config

It should give you some warning. Just disregard it.

In the search bar, enter: browser.urlbar

Change the browser.urlbar.matchOnlyTyped boolean to True. (Double click it)

Next, change the browser.urlbar.maxRichResults integer to 0. (Double click and enter in 0 instead of current number) "

Also works on vista version tough its on a ubuntu linux related web-site

# jet at 6/17/2008 9:44 pm cst

THANK YOU! That feature was a pain in the arse

# San at 6/18/2008 11:53 pm cst

Thank you so much! That was the only thing I didn't like about Firefox 3.

# Nine at 7/17/2008 7:07 pm cst

I think it is a good feature but I don't want people looking over my shoulder seeing other websites I've visited sometimes. Thanks for posting!

# Chris at 1/8/2009 3:05 pm cst

This didnt work for me. Gentoo linux with Firefox 3.0.5

# swap at 1/15/2009 7:20 am cst

thanks it worked for me

# Dave at 3/20/2009 9:49 pm cst

Thanks guys. I thought I was the only one who hated that STUPID address bar. I went back to FF2 just so I wouldn't have to deal with it. If a radical change like that is going to be made in the future, I hope the powers that be will include a simple and obvious way to to turn it off. I thought choice was what it's all about.

# darknessreaver at 6/27/2009 4:26 pm cst

OMG THANK YOU SOO much. Can't tell you how pointless and bad this thing was, as so can't many others... And you search for answers how to disable it, you get a.) articles praising it. b.) the same "oh you just go to tools, Clear Private Data, yeah! and your done!" reallly? so like..the same thing I've basically been doing for the past 10 years? Really, wow, why didn't I think of that... oh thats right THAT'S NOT THE PROBLEM. Just look at what has to be done to do it... I actually read some solutions that involved going into the registry and changing stuff there (didn't work..) They really need to get rid of this feature or offer an actual option to turn it off, Super Browser my but.. there IS NO PRIVACY with this thing on, it makes "Clear Private Data" completely useless, they don't have to go through your history, someone doesn't even have to actually WANT to see your history, all they have to do.. is type in the address bar... really, just brilliant.. Glad your solution worked for me as well , thought its really ridiculous, but I'll be passing it on.