Mozilla has given Firefox’s address bar a significant upgrade. The browser not only becomes faster but also more functional.
Mozilla has announced that Firefox has become smarter and faster. Users can now switch search engines directly from the address bar, with buttons for Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, and even sites like Amazon or Wikipedia.
Functional Address Bar
Your search term now remains visible in the bar after performing a search. This makes it easier to adjust or search again without losing your original search query.
With new keywords like @bookmarks, @tabs, @history, and @wikipedia, you can now search more specifically. For example, type @wikipedia windows in the address bar and Firefox will only show Wikipedia results about Windows. This approach makes specialized searches more accessible.
The address bar also gets a productivity boost. You can type commands like ‘delete history’ to clear your browsing history or ‘take a screenshot’ to capture an image of your active tab. This evolves the address bar from a simple search tool into a central control point for quick actions.
At the end of last year, Firefox discontinued the “Do Not Track” functionality. This feature ensured that users could not be tracked by sites. Fewer and fewer developers were taking it into account, and users experienced adverse effects on their privacy.