Why is the url bar that important? Because it lets users know where they currently are. Users use the information displayed in the address bar to determine if they are on the right website, which is essential to avoid phishing attacks and other forms of malware on today’s Internet.

Locationbar 2 is an add-on for the Firefox web browser that adds several interesting urlbar manipulation options to the browser.

Among them the option to highlight the core web address so that it becomes easier to identify the domain. The color of the domain is selectable in the options of the extension, and it is furthermore possible to bold it to make it stick out even more.

But that’s only one of the options available. Another interesting feature is the ability to split the web address into breadcrumbs, either for the host or all segments. The breadcrumbs become clickable which can then be used to naviagate between directories of the domain directly without having to find those navigational options on the page.

The individual segments become selectable with hotkeys, or if the mouse is moved to the website’s favicon first.

Locationbar2 has another interesting option. It can hide protocols from the address bar. Protocols are http, https or ftp amongh others. Hiding protocols saves a few pixels and removes distraction from the website address. It is however recommend to keep security relevant protocols visible at all times.

Locationbar2 is a offers three interesting features that improve the Firefox location bar. The extension can be downloaded from the official Firefox add-on repository.

If you are one of the users who prefers the old way and wants to get rid of the star which does not have another function than the ones described above you can do that by adding an entry to the userChrome.css file in the Firefox profile.

Just add the line #star-button {display:none !important;} to the end of that file to remove the star from Firefox 3. The Mozilla Knowledgebase is explaining how you can find the Firefox profile folder.

This does work pretty well in conjunction with the Cybersearch add-on by Ryan from Cybernetnews that displays search results on a white background. All in all you got three or four background colors instead of just one which is great for distinguishing results on the first glance.

The easiest way to install this style is by installing the Stylish add-on first and then that new user style.

The colors of the style can be easily changed if you edit the style in the extension’s options. Just right-click on the icon of the add-on and select Manage Styles. Then select the user style and click on Edit to edit it.

I had some complaints however. The major one was that Amazon Search was included when using the add-on which was pretty useless to me and that there was not a way to add other search engines, say Wikipedia, Yahoo Search or even from my own website to the add-on.

Ryan from Cybernetnews seemed to have similar thoughts when he reviewed the add-on after finding it on my website. He went a step ahead however and wrote his own version of it that provides all the features that I missed in the original extension.

Cybersearch is the name of the add-on. It basically makes it possible to define keywords for searches that are then displayed directly in the Firefox 3 location bar. It comes installed with a few defined ones like Google and Wikipedia but it is not a problem to change the existing ones or add new keyword searches.

It is furthermore possible to add searches that search multiple websites at once. Ryan added Lifehacker, Download Squad and his website to the keyword techy. I feel a bit bad that he did not add my site as well. Ryan if you hear that please add my site to it ;)

To perform a search one would simply write “techy keyword” in the location bar, say “techy firefox 3″ for results about firefox 3 on those three websites. It’s not a problem to add another site manually to it though.

The system is pretty flexible but makes use of (only) Google services from what I can tell. Sites like Wikipedia are searched using Google instead of the site search. If my vote would count for a change I would say that Ryan should at least add the two other major search engines (Yahoo and Life) to it. I prefer to have multiple options there.

The “Enable Keywords” box has to be checked after installing the Firefox 3 add-on before keyword searches can be performed. Wonderful add-on, pretty stable for a first release as well. Well done Ryan.

The Stylish script Url dropdown on one row (hide Title) removes the title from the results and effectively halves the screen estate that is being used by the box in Firefox 3. The Stylish add-on has to be installed before the script can be installed to the system. T

After the add-on has been installed the script can be saved from its userstyles page. It will become available immediately and can be tested right away by typing a phrase into the location bar.

But beware. That script can cause some confusion if you are not used to identify websites by looking at their urls. This is not always possible of course but mostly it is. The add-on is not that useful if you have installed the Searchery add-on as well which displays search results in the menu as well which is extremely hard to identify without page titles.

Now there is always a group that prefers the old ways simply because they are used to it. Talk to your parents or other elderly people and you will notice that they believe that many things have been better in the past and turned to the worse in later years.

I was able to identify two main points of criticism. The first is the mix of bookmarks and history items that are displayed when typing in words in the location bar. Some users do not want their bookmarks to appear in that list. The second complaint is the results window that opens when results are found in the location bar. Many users think it’s to big and ugly.

Here are some comments from users about the new location bar:

I just downloaded the beta and started using version 3, and this new bar is the worst implementation imaginable of what might actually be a reasonable idea. (I would have to see a good implementation before I can decide on that last part.)

I type in “ne”, and it sorts “slashdot-NEws for NErds”, and “groklaw.NEt”, and a few other things, BEFORE “NEws.google.com”.

If I WANTED slashdot, I would have typed “sl”. If I WANTED groklaw, I would have typed “gr”.

Do the people who design these things even type at all when they use the browser, or do just they think they are helping out old people who don’t know how to use a mouse with fancy icons?????

That AWFULBAR is so unbelievably bad – this add on at least makes it look better; but the algorithm and arrogance of the developers made me revert back to FF2. I may dump Firefox altogether. I know that some people will like the new bar, but totally outrageous to stick it on everyone. There will be MANY MANY people who would otherwise use FF that will swear off it now – there will be many embarassing moments as this algorithm BOLDLY displays unexpected results/history in public/group presentations, family situations, etc. Mark my words – this new feature will be the single most important event in the downfall of Firefox/Mozilla.

It is possible to make the Firefox 3 location bar look more like the old location bar of Firefox 2 which would at least remove the second complaint. The oldbar add-on changes the style of it to resemble the old location bar. It still uses the Firefox 3 algorithm to search through bookmarks and history.

There does not seem to be a preference for now that makes it possible to disable the bookmarks from being included in the search when entering characters in the location bar.

Do you like the new location bar or do you prefer the old one ? Let me know.

The major difficulty is to find the correct url of the new search engine to replace the Google url. But let me first explain where you can change the search url in Firefox. You need to type about:config in the address bar of Firefox and filter for the phrase keyword.URL. This parameter contains the search url that will be used when typing in a word or phrases in the location bar.

You can’t just add the url that you would enter to visit the search engine there, e.g. yahoo.com or wikipedia.com because the search – normally – uses special parameters. The best way to discover the correct url would be to perform a search at your search engine of choice and copy / paste that url after modifying it a bit. If you search at Yahoo you discover lots of irrelevant option parameters that do not need to be added.

The Yahoo url that could be added would be http://search.yahoo.com/search?p= for instance or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ for Wikipedia. It’s all about a little trial and error but I think it’s well worth the effort.

Update: You can also check out the Mycroft Project which offers a big list of different search providers. The list includes popular providers like Facebook, YouTube, Google, Bing or Wikipedia plus a lot of lesser known search providers that may be more specialize than the ones mentioned.