Firefox/Features/keywordurl follows searchbar

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Status

Replace keyword.URL to follow Search Bar and/or allow independent setting of provider
Stage	Definition
Status	`
Release target	`
Health	OK
Status note	UX/Privacy/Eng feedback required

Team

Product manager	Kev Needham
Directly Responsible Individual	Kev Needham
Lead engineer	TBD (Gavin?)
Security lead	`
Privacy lead	Alex Fowler
Localization lead	`
Accessibility lead	`
QA lead	Simona Badau
UX lead	Alex Limi
Product marketing lead	`
Operations lead	`
Additional members	`

Open issues/risks

Privacy: implication of sending data from Location Bar to search engines other than Google, about:rights changes

Stage 1: Definition

1. Feature overview

Currently, keyword.URL defines what search service is used for search queries triggered by terms entered in the Location Bar. The value of keyword.URL can only be set through about:config, and is not related nor can it be controlled via the "Manage Search Engines..." UI from the search bar. This feature is intended to give users some control over which search service provider from the location bar by having it follow the current (default) engine selected through the Search Bar/add-on/application default.

2. Users & use cases

Change Location Bar searches to match selected/default search engine via
- User change of selected/default search engine through Search Bar or "Manage Search Engines
- Application change of selected/default search (NB: if a user has changed the app default, the user change would always trump the application change)
- Addon change of selected/default search engine on install
checks on startup or periodic checks to ensure Location Bar searches match what user has selected
Allow inclusion of Param or MozParam attributes in the search query that are specific to location bar searches (similar to 596439)

3. Dependencies

Searches from the Location Bar default to Google regardless of the currently configured Search Engine for the browser 637675

4. Requirements

detect change of default search engine (browser.search.defaultenginename) on startup, add-on install, search engine install, or user change
on detection of change, modify keyword.URL parameter (or equivalent) to match selected/default search engine such that location bar searches will use the same search service
optionally drop keyword.URL parameter and replace with a location bar search pref and/or do a straight follow of the selected/default search plugin
allow location-bar specific Param or MozParam to override or append search query attributes to queries originating from the Location Bar

Non-goals

keyword.URL protection (e.g. from hijacking, add-on changed prefs, etc.)
inclusion of search suggest or other related info in/modification of Awesome Bar results
independent management of keyword.URL or equivalent

Stage 2: Design

5. Functional specification

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6. User experience design

No designs required for initial use case, simply a "follow-me" function with no additional UI required. As a follow-on/enhancement, it would be a nice-to-have to develop UI within "Manage search engines..." to allow a user to specify a different search engine from the Search Bar for Location Bar searches.

Stage 3: Planning

7. Implementation plan

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8. Reviews

Security review

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Privacy review

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Localization review

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Accessibility

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Quality Assurance review

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Operations review

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Stage 4: Development

9. Implementation

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Stage 5: Release

10. Landing criteria

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Feature details

Priority	P2
Rank	8
Theme / Goal	`
Roadmap	Search
Secondary roadmap	`
Feature list	Desktop
Project	`
Engineering team	Desktop front-end

Team status notes

	status	notes
Products	`	`
Engineering	`	`
Security	`	`
Privacy	`	`
Localization	`	`
Accessibility	`	`
Quality assurance	`	`
User experience	`	`
Product marketing	`	`
Operations	`	`