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Comment by nolok | Hacker News Reader

Aren't Firefox/Ubuntu/Chrome doing the same for Google (eg type a few letters and they search for suggestions in their local db [bookmarks, history, ...] but also make a remote search for more) ?

Not saying this as anti-Google, pro-Microsoft or pro/anti anyone, merely agreeing with you that the "% of {area|time|...} search" means absolutely nothing.

Especially in the context that matters for potential Bing customers, aka ads buyers: I don't care about how many search there are, I care about how many people can see my ad.

Of course no big search entity has any interest of giving those "real search" numbers, neither the front runner nor the underdog.

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Ubuntu got a lot of shit for doing that with Amazon so I think they stopped doing it, and Firefox has as far as I know never done a remote search until you press enter, the suggestions in the bar are all based on local data.

Firefox absolutely does run searches after you agree into it after installation.

AFAIK it doesn't on address bar but of course it does on search bar for suggestions. That's why they were keeping the two separate.

There is a setting to enable suggestions also in the location bar (off by default, I think).

But you do have to agree first. I find predictive search distracting, so I've never turned it on.

At least it's opt-in though, unlike windows.

I'd argue people know (even expect) they are searching Google when they type in a browser address bar. No one wants Bing search results when they type in the start menu.

> I'd argue people know (even expect) they are searching Google when they type in a browser address bar. No one wants Bing search results when they type in the start menu.

NO!! I don't expect to be searching Google when I type something into the browser address bar. That is what the search bar is for.

Whats your reasoning for holding out on this?

Keyboard shortcut? Privacy concerns?

Honestly curious because I feel the search bar has long since been made redundant. The only people I see using it in the wild is my parents/their friends.

> No one wants Bing search results when they type in the start menu

I don't understand why people speak for the whole population. I'm sure MS runs Analytics for these and would've killed it off if "no one" wants it.

This does not sound like a thing Microsoft would do at all. It is one of those small annoyances people just will get used to

> I'm sure MS runs Analytics for these and would've killed it off if "no one" wants it.

Microsoft users do not want it.

Microsoft customers want it.

In case it's not obvious, when Windows was given away for free, the users were no longer customers, and transitioned to become "product".

Firefox isn't. It has a separated search bar and won't send any data over the wires when using the address bar. Ubuntu also changed back from their "we are entitled into spying on anything" opinion, and aren't starting remote searches automatically either.

Anyway, wether those automatic searches will display the ads or not is a different issue. Many will.

> Firefox [...] has a separated search bar and won't send any data over the wires when using the address bar

It can does offer suggestions from the address bar, but only after you click "yes I want this". Same for the search bar.

What you say sounds like the search bar does send keypresses and like the address bar can't (both are incorrect).

For the address bar, is it some setting hidden in about.config? I have never found it.

Normal address bar suggestions come from local data stores, not from a search provider. (And I tough both suggestions were enabled by default, but well, it's been many years since I last configured a fresh Firefox install.)

They've started asking for the opt-in to include search suggestions for a few months now if I remember correctly. Right in the address bar itself, no funny config setting.

Firefox asks you first "do you want search suggestions", both for the search bar and for the address bar.

I expect those things from a web browser, I don't expect it from an application launcher.

Basically one in the same these days no?

iirc mac os also does this with the cmd+space launcher. I think maybe even gnomes launcher does this as well.

Actually, for a while, Ubuntu tried to do this with Amazon. I'm not sure if it is still there, I doubt it, but I remember the unity-advertising-lens-removal fix being pretty popular at the time.

The double standards are strong here.

How so? It's Microsoft that's making pretty bold claims based on these numbers, not Google.

TBH if Google was in 2nd position they would have done the same.

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