I don't have time to type "metafilter.com" every single time.

June 19, 2008 4:01 PM

How can I set up autocomplete to work on Firefox 3 like it did on previous versions?

Sorry if I'm an idiot when it comes to computers, but I've tried the google searches and everything else, but I can't find anything (through preferences, or anything else) that will make my address bar use autocomplete for places I've been to before. I long for the days when I could just type M + down arrow + enter to get to the Blue. Please help.

posted by My Bloody Pony to computers & internet (13 comments total)

I'm told that this will get you a lot of the way there. (I haven't tried it myself.)
posted by Class Goat at 4:09 PM on June 19

If you don't like the new smart bar, there's an extension called OldBar that will make the address bar look and act like it did in FF2.
posted by pdb at 4:12 PM on June 19

I found that it gets better with use. m + down arrow + enter used to be mail.yahoo.com for me, but after installing FF3 it brought up every site with with an m in the page title or url. But with a little bit of use mail.yahoo.com is back to m+down arrow + enter
posted by missmagenta at 4:18 PM on June 19

Like I note here, it'd be easy to set it up so you just have to type 'm' and enter to get to the blue.
posted by Zed_Lopez at 4:32 PM on June 19

missmagenta is right, it learns from your behavior. I've been using FF3 for months through all the beta releases, and if you always use the same key sequence to bring up a particular URL, the browser learns pretty quickly to put that one at the top of the list.
posted by jjg at 5:16 PM on June 19

The oldbar extension only makes the new URLbar look like the old one, not act like it. Unfortunately, in their infinite wisdom, the Moz developers decided that the new AwesomeBar was just, y'know, too awsome! to let people miss out on - so there's no going back.

You can get something like - but not the same as - the old functionality back by using the oldbar extension, and changing these settings in the about:config URL

• browser.urlbar.matchOnlyTyped to true
• browser.urlbar.maxRichResults to 25
• browser.urlbar.RichResults to false

For me, at least, that's stopped it returning slashdot.org and youtube.com as the first results when I type "as"...
posted by Pinback at 5:19 PM on June 19

Aprés post: for me, unlike what the awesomebar fans keep saying, it stopped learning beyond a certain point and stayed with its retarded behaviour regardless of how often I skipped over the unwanted results.

(Yes, that was with all versions since the 'tardbar was introduced in b3, with new profiles each time and across different machines. It just didn't work as promised.

There's a lot to dislike in FF3...)
posted by Pinback at 5:29 PM on June 19

You can still program keywords in FF3 for quick browsing, here's how:

1. Bookmark Metafilter (if you haven't already!)
2. Click Bookmarks, Organize Bookmarks in your menu bar to pull up your Bookmark Library.
3. Click the Metafilter bookmark in the Library and at the bottom of the screen it will list the bookmark Name, Location and Tags fields and a "More" button.
4. Click "More" to reveal the Keyword and Description fields.
5. Type "m" in the Keyword field.
6. Close the Library.

Now when you type "m" in the address bar and hit enter, it will always go to Metafilter, no matter what other addresses appear in that dropdown list.
posted by platinum at 5:59 PM on June 19

I'm just glad I'm not the only one annoyed by this.
posted by radioamy at 6:04 PM on June 19

You don't have to wait for it to learn. If you clear your history, Firefox 3 will figure out what you mean from the first time you browse to metafilter. Try that before you turn it off.
posted by gmarceau at 6:24 PM on June 19

Resolved, thanks in part to gmarceau's answer (though thank you all!) and part because I discovered that for some reason the box to store my history at all was no longer checked.

Hmmm.
posted by My Bloody Pony at 7:21 PM on June 19

I don't understand the hate for the AwesomeBar. I love it. Perhaps because I use bookmarks for all my daily sites and I don't type them into the address bar. Then, when I need to go back to an obscure website with an article I was just reading and I remember a couple words in the title, I can easily type in a word or two and BAM, there it is.
posted by InsanePenguin at 7:56 PM on June 19

You can also type about:config in the location bar, click the "I'll be careful" button, filter for "autofill," and switch browser.urlbar.autoFill to true. Then the URL bar will automatically insert the top match, so, if that match is metafilter.com, you can just press enter without any need for the down arrow.
posted by tepidmonkey at 7:29 PM on June 20