Firefox 3 annoyance

[mtnbkr]

How do I turn off the feature that has the URL dropdown tied to my bookmarks?  As I type a URL, it works its way through my bookmarks trying to find a match.  When I click the url dropdown to find a recently visited site, it shows nothing but my bookmarks.  I don't have APS bookmarked, I type it in each time, yet it isn't in the dropdown, but sites I haven't visited in months or years are because they're bookmarked.  It completely destroys how I use my bookmarks (long term memory) vs my url dropdown (short term memory).  I've looked through the settings and can't find where this is enabled.

Chris

[BryanP]

Ah yes.  The vaunted Firefox 3 "awesome bar."  It doesn't bother me, but many people have complained about it.  There's an addon that will supposedly work around that behavior.  I haven't tried it myself, but you can find it here:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/7429

As I said, I haven't tried this addon myself, so I can't vouch for functionality.

[mtnbkr]

Ahh.  After installing that patch, I understand how the new FF works.  The "navigation" bar isn't.  What I'm used to using is now to the left of this new "awesome bar". 

I don't like it.  Every new version makes FF worse than the previous.

Chris

[BryanP]

On the positive side, FF3 on my system is using less memory, less CPU time and is all around more responsive than its predecessor.  I do think they should have made this new "awesome bar" an option that can be turned off for those who would prefer the classic navigation bar.

[mtnbkr]

Yeah, it is better on the resource side, but I agree that the "awesome bar" should be an option or done away with entirely. 

Chris

[lee n. field]

You know about the "about:config" url, right?  Direct access to Firefox settings.  I'll bet you can fix your annoyance in there somewhere.

[mtnbkr]

yeah, I know about it, but couldn't find the specific parameter to change.

Chris

[BryanP]

Nope.  There is no simple config option to turn off the new bar and bring back the old one.  That has been a fairly major gripe in the Mozilla forums.

[Desertdog]

Click on "Tools", click on "Opitons", and change your "History" settings and go down to "Private Data" and click on "Settings".  There are a number of settings you can change there, including History.

[Fjolnirsson]

I switched from Firefox to opera about two weeks ago, after I got tired of dealing with the slowdown from FF2. At first, I didn't really care for Opera, but I'm growing to like it more and more. I've downloaded FF3 at home and at work, but I find that I much prefer Opera at home. I do not like the "awesome" toolbar.

[Sergeant Bob]

Regarding FF3, there is a "portable" version that you can install separately so you don't have to muck up your original.

http://portableapps.com/

[mtnbkr]

Click on "Tools", click on "Opitons", and change your "History" settings and go down to "Private Data" and click on "Settings".  There are a number of settings you can change there, including History.

Has no effect on the issue at hand.

Chris

[Sergeant Bob]

What is the "Awesome Bar"?

[mtnbkr]

Remember the address bar?  Where you type URLs?  It looks like that and you can still type URLs in it, but instead of listing your history when you hit the dropdown button, it now only lists the bookmarks you haven't visited in a while.

Not exactly awesome IMO.

Chris

[crt360]

Remember the address bar?  Where you type URLs?  It looks like that and you can still type URLs in it, but instead of listing your history when you hit the dropdown button, it now only lists the bookmarks you haven't visited in a while.

Not exactly awesome IMO.

Chris

I've never had a version that listed my history when I hit the dropdown button.  Mine's always just listed recently typed URLs and that's kind of the way it's still working in FF3, but it looks different.  Actually, I'm not sure what it's listing there now.  It's not history, and it's definitely not bookmarks.  Hmmmm.  Yeah, it doesn't seem too awesome.

[mtnbkr]

I called it history, but it was actually recently typed URLs.  I have FF clear history on exit, but I use the recently typed URL list to go back to pages I visited during that session.  The "Awesome" bar showed bookmarks that haven't been visited lately as you typed a URL.  At least that was what it was doing in my case.

Chris