Firefox 75 Brings Redesigned Address Bar for Faster Searching

Mozilla is today launching Firefox 75. It’s the latest update to its web browser, and it brings the usual bug fixes and improvements as you’d expect.

But the main new feature on Firefox 75 is an improved address bar. Mozilla is updating the address bar to make searching faster and smarter from the address bar.

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The new changes include a refreshed look, with larger font, and shorter URLs. Mozilla claims the improved look is optimized for smaller laptop screens. Searches on the address bar are also slightly smarter, with Firefox now highlighting additional popular keywords when you are searching for something.

The new address bar also puts your top sites on the address bar. When you click on the address bar, it will now show your most visited sites that you can quickly open right from the address bar. And if you happen to have of those sites already opened in a tab, it will indicate that, and you can just jump to the existing tab instead of opening a new tab.

The changes are not really major, but if you are a Firefox user, I can see why these changes would improve the browsing experience.

Mozilla also announced today that it will stick to its 2020 release schedule despite the COVID-19 outbreak — at least for now.

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Conversation 11 comments

  • sherlockholmes

    Premium Member
    07 April, 2020 - 9:58 am

    <p>Its so sad. Firefox lost its way. It doesnt bring inovations anymore. And the improvements are so small, you barely notice them. </p>

    • beatnixxx

      07 April, 2020 - 11:59 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#537233">In reply to SherlockHolmes:</a></em></blockquote><p>I use it as my main browser and I don't find it to be lacking at all. At this point browsers are all pretty mature and iterative in their updates.</p><p><br></p><p>What features do you feel like Firefox is falling down in? Not being snarky, genuinely curious.</p>

      • sherlockholmes

        Premium Member
        07 April, 2020 - 12:55 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#537273">In reply to beatnixxx:</a></em></blockquote><p>For instance, PWAs. I dont use PWAs that much but other people like Paul do. When a browser ignores a feature that other browsers have, then its no wonder that market shares are going down. </p>

  • wright_is

    Premium Member
    07 April, 2020 - 10:24 am

    <p>Interesting middle-click or control+click on an item in the address-bar dropdown still opens it in a new tab, that is useful.</p>

  • fishnet37222

    Premium Member
    07 April, 2020 - 10:52 am

    <p>If you don't like the new look to the address bar, open about:config and set "browser.urlbar.update1" to false. You'll need to close the browser and re-open it to see the change.</p>

  • richardbottiglieri

    Premium Member
    07 April, 2020 - 11:26 am

    <p>Firefox has become my default browser on Windows and macOS. There are tons of tweaks available, and the text rendering just looks better than Chromium. Also, the Facebook and Multi-Account Container extensions are nice add-ons if you want to build a walled garden around certain sites (cough, Facebook).</p>

  • meril68

    07 April, 2020 - 8:05 pm

    <p>I don't like the new address bar It holds fewer addresses of often visited sites and can't get rid of the search google and amazon. Not good</p>

    • fishnet37222

      Premium Member
      07 April, 2020 - 8:43 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#537369">In reply to meril68:</a></em></blockquote><p>To go back to the old one, open "about:config" and set "browser.urlbar.update1" to false. After you close your browser and re-open it, you'll see the change.</p>

    • miamimauler

      08 April, 2020 - 2:57 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#537369">In reply to meril68:</a></em></blockquote><p>If you go to search engine settings and remove Google and Amazon they won't show in the address bar.</p>

  • sherlockholmes

    Premium Member
    08 April, 2020 - 12:23 am

    <blockquote><em><a href="#537367">In reply to lvthunder:</a></em></blockquote><p>Is it better to leave things as they are and let your market shares go done? I know there is much more you can do in browser but to dont bring the feature everybody else seems to have is kinda stupid. </p>

  • retcable

    Premium Member
    08 April, 2020 - 7:10 am

    <p>Firefox is my default browser for one main reason: I just LOVE their Boomarks Sidebar. I love the way it looks and the way it functions. A few other browsers have a bookmark sidebar or allow extensions that enable some sort of that functionality, but none comes close to the default sidebar in Firefox. You don't have to hover your cursor on the side of the screen or move it off the screen to invoke the sidebar. The size of it is infinitely adjustable so that it does not take up a lot of screen real estate. It includes site favicons. The site you are currently on is highlighted in the list. It is easily organizable using drag &amp; drop or right-click. And using Firefox sync, all your bookmarks will sync across any version of Firefox on any device. It's just fantastic. I have never been able to find another browser or Chrome extension that includes all the functions of the Firefox basic included sidebar.</p>

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