[warbiscuit]

That seems really ass-backward, and not just because I use the search feature a lot.

If I'm reading that right, they're deprecating support for discoverable browser-independant markup for searches; and replacing it with the requirement that each site actively develop (and maintain!) a software plugin for every browser their users might want to use.

The whole point of a "user agent" was to go out and do things for me on the web; and the idealistic goal was that each person could choose an agent suited for them, which then had tools to programmatically discover and interact with the web in a common manner (reducing engineering load on the webdevs).

And I don't want to try and use a separate search tool (with new flashing graphics and ads!!!!) for every site I go to... I want a single search tool, like FF offers right now. (Aside: not to mention chrome's "auto-discovery of opensearch when you tab after typing a domain" is actually MORE useful than FF's manual mode!).

Taking a step back and removing support for a declarative api seems to me like the really wrong direction for an open web. Instead of sites supporting a single declarative browser-independent markup; they now have to deal with a long tail of (2-3 + who knows how many) browsers; and users with a niche browser have to spend effort convincing every site to support their browser.

Why not try to improve the opensearch markup instead?

[warbiscuit]

Followup - I'd actually been using chrome a bit more heavily; and was wanting to use FF more, just to support open standards. One of the main things I was missing was being able to type in google docs domain, tab, and type a document. I was planning to research how to make something similar work in FF, and now I know how, and that they're removing it :(

[myfonj]

There is ancient feature of regular bookmarks to serve as "search keywords" [1]: just give it a some keyword and use `%s` in place of URL you want to substitute with value encoded as URI fragment (IIRC, or `%S` to be used more verbatim). In Firefox it is directly in "New bookmark" form; in Chrome it is dug somewhere in "Search engines" corner of settings.

For example setting keyword `t` for uri `data:text/plain,%S` and entering `t foo` into location bar will navigate you to `data:text/plain,foo`, i.e. "make document". If Google Docs have GET endpoint for creating documents, it should work. For searching you can apparenly use `https://docs.google.com/document/?q=%s`.

[1] https://www-archive.mozilla.org/docs/end-user/keywords

[vatueil]

The parent comment was referring to how Chrome automatically adds search engines. You only have to "dig into" the settings menu if you want to change the keyword or add a custom search.

Even if you're adding it manually, I think the list of search engines is a more intuitive place to put such a feature than "bookmark keywords".

Compared to similar features in Chrome or DDG's bangs, Firefox's bookmark keywords seem less discoverable to me.

[nine_k]

While less discoverable, bookmarks with %s allow "searching", or rather URL macro-expansion, for pages that lack search features.

[vatueil]

The exact same trick works with custom search engines in Chrome as well.

They're equally powerful. Automatically adding search engines means users don't have to do so by hand, but you can still manually create a "search engine" too (e.g. "https://xkcd.com/%s/" with the keyword "xkcd").

In Firefox I keep a folder with bookmarks that have keywords, but I would prefer the UI in Firefox's search engine settings (the bookmark manager doesn't have a keywords column).

The problem is few will discover Firefox's bookmark keywords unless they're told about the feature, and manually create such bookmarks, while Chrome automatically creates keywords for search engines and prompts users to try them out.

[myfonj]

I completely agree that it's a pity such nice feature isn't known better among wide audience and yes, Firefox bookmarks management ("Library") UI leaves much to be desired. [2]

Just one reminder: in Firefox there is "Add a Keyword for this search..." command on any (form) input field that triggers keyword bookmark creation wizard [1], so what Chrome does automagically by visiting page with form (or using the form once?) you can do quite easily in Firefox as well, but you must find the input field, shift+f10 or click few times and pick keyword.

Also, using same keyword for different URL will (at this moment) silently "transfer" the keyword to new URL, with no warning about

[1] yet again, this wizard obscures resulting bookmarked URL with relevant `%s` part, so regular user cannot find out how this thing works. (I'm sad how hard recent browsers tend to hide whole concept of URL from users, in general. I understand it, but it's sad.)

[2] I had to `select moz_keywords.keyword, moz_places.url, moz_places.title from moz_keywords inner join moz_places on moz_places.id == moz_keywords.place_id order by keyword;` last time I wanted to see all my keywords. (And I'm trying to keep them in a single folder as well.)

[MayeulC]

I have noticed that menu entry for years, and tried using it, but I had no idea how (and I guess it wasn't big enough of an issue for me to look it up). Thank you for explaining.

[ReggieJJJ]

I for one am rather curious about many recent Mozilla moves. They seem to be away from decentralized and distributed models, towards centralized ones.

You ask why not improve opensearch markup, just like I have asked why not improve RSS. I am quite convinced that the RSS model has a lot of untapped potential for a distributed internet, but it also thwarts central control, surveillance, tracking etc.

[m-p-3]

I am grateful for RSS feeds, without them I wouldn't be able to keep up with so many websites.