Is it just me...

Or did the latest Firefox throw up all over itself with that weird dynamic address bar?

It just bloody sucks. It accesses your history for every instance where you (or the headertext of a site) wrote a letter or combination of letters, and then just puts its fingers down its throat and splurges it all over your screen.

If I type 'fo' I expect it to drop down with a link beginning 'forums' or something, not 'Search Results For...'

While the idea is quite a snappy one and not without potential for improvement, it actually reduces efficiency of browsing rather than improves it. It's a bit of a demoraliser if the biggest trumpeted feature of the new version is something that I immediately want to turn off. Even more so that the browser doesn't provide an option for it in the options menu. Thankfully it CAN be turned off, although I wish Firefox would provide a more user-friendly access to the advanced options. I know enough computer-newbs who would be scared at the thought of the about:config menu in the same way someone learning to swim would blanch at the thought of swimming the English Channel tomorrow. But...yeah, way to go. You put in a new feature and at least half your userbase are googling for a way to get rid of it. Sounds like another software company we could care to name...

Speaking of efficency, though, IE is less of a RAM hog now and the only reason I don't use it now is that its blockers are too annoying and tiresome and the interface is annoying. But seriously, is Firefox bloating up just like its forced-installed rival?

Discuss.

Edited by Ash, 01 September 2008 - 06:50 AM.

I dont even notice because I have it clear all history/cookies on exit. Now all it lists is my bookmarks.

Yep, mine also only gets to list the bookmarks because I turn off browsing history in every browser. The behaviour is exactly the same as in Opera, btw.

You're kind of right though that FF is no longer the fast, light-weight browser it used to be in the past. It's still more standards-compliant than IE though and some of the addons just plain rock for web development (web developer toolbar, live http headers, tamper data, ...). That's also the only thing I actually use it for at the moment, for normal browsing I use Opera.

Thing is, I don't want it to display bookmarks. I have my bookmarks tab for that... . Then again I don't use bookmarks very much. For the way I browse it actually reduced the efficiency. It was so unwieldy I found. I'm sure some people have a better time with it but Firefox's trumpeting of 'fully customisable' comes with rather too much fineprint for my liking. Should say 'Fully customisable, if you know what does what. Which a lot of casual users don't. Would the sky really fall in if they just put the options in the Tools->Options section?

And don't get me started on that horrible apostrophe search bar bullshit.

I don't save history, and for me the new address bar is a perfect addition. Along with the new bookmark database, I can just click on the star when I'm on an interesting page - without worrying where to put it in the bookmark tree - then later find it by typing in a few letters of the title...so efficient

Eh, I suppose it's based on how you browse as to whether you'll find the new feature better or infuriating.

You're just abnormal, Ash

He's a real Paradox

lol...

Its not you, they've just copied a feature from Opera and inserted it into a UI that makes it highly intrusive and not reveal much. I like it, but it could be improved.
And yes, they are bloating. And have been some time. Whislt the original mission statement was to create a lightweight standards complient browser, ever since they became more complient than IE (omg, big deal) they've been obsessed with adding new features from Opera and extensions. Now they're not worrying about complience or lightweight...

They should just drastically slim down the core browser and put all of the fancy features into some kind of "official" extensions. Then the people developing the actual browser could focus more on speed and standards compliance again, while others work on the optional eye-candy (or hand-candy). I believe that would improve FF a lot already.

Good idea, would also enable you to easily set up sets of extensions to load too so you only have what you need running, and run everything you need for a specific want.
I'd also say replace Gecko with Webkit but I think we all know that'll never happen.

But speaking of Webkit, I've spent the day Chroming, and I actually quite like it. Why (oh god why?), you ask? Because it has no features. It is a browser. It browses. That is all. I've even set it as my default. Why? So when someone sends me a link, I want to check something, etc., it takes 1 second to load, and thats it. FF and O both take me about 12 with all the stuff I mightn't use that session. Makes me kinda feel like anything else is like opening photoshop to view a thumbnail.