[flukus]

> The GUI features Google introduced were very important. Draggable, swappable tabs that can be pulled out into separate windows

Meanwhile all the extensions for better tabs are still broken because the tab bar still exists across the top. They had a more capable browser then they killed it. I doubt these issue are visible in their telemetry.

> address bars with integrated search engines

The original mozilla suite had this, no idea why it was separated in Firefox.

[eitland]

> The original mozilla suite had this, no idea why it was separated in Firefox.

Privacy.

Mozilla thought it was a good idea to avoid sending every keystroke you type to Google.

Turns out people don't care or complain loudly that it doesn't work like in Chrome so now it is combined by default AFAIK, but there is a fallback for people like me (and many other HNers).

As for why consider what happens when you type <somethingyouwouldprefergoogledidnotknow>.com

Until the .com this looks like a search.

Examples:

- internal websites with revealing URLs

- support websites for things yoou don't want ads for (mental conditions etc)

- etc

I used to be in the nothing to hide, nothing to fear camp but 2 decades of Internet use have changed my mind (even if I still think I have nothing to hide for police or family.)

[flukus]

> Mozilla thought it was a good idea to avoid sending every keystroke you type to Google.

It's not like that's the only choice. They could have local auto complete and only send the search request to google when you hit enter.

[eitland]

> It's not like that's the only choice. They could have local auto complete and only send the search request to google when you hit enter.

... and that's what it used to do IIRC.

Today you'll also have to turn off "Show search suggestions in address bar results" to get back to that behaviour it seems.