The Mozilla Blog

A Little Something Awesome about Firefox 3

Posted by Mary Colvig

April 21st, 2008 · Mozilla News, Tips & Tricks

Deb Richardson, author of the about:mozilla newsletter, wrote one of the better explanations I’ve seen on the “AwesomeBar,” Firefox 3’s revamped URL bar.   It’s not the most humble of names, but if you check out Deb’s post you’ll see why it’s earned it.

In Deb’s words, here’s a quick snapshot of what makes Firefox 3’s URL bar just so awesome:

Dubbed the “AwesomeBar”, it lets you use the URL field of your browser to do a keyword search of your history and bookmarks. No longer do you have to know the domain of the page you’re looking for — the AwesomeBar will match what you’re typing (even multiple words!) against the URLs, page titles, and tags in your bookmarks and history, returning results sorted by “frecency” (an algorithm combining frequency + recency).

Not only that, but the drop-list results show you the page’s favicon, the full title, the URL, and whether you have bookmarked and/or tagged the page in a richly formatted two-line display.

Example:  I start by typing “ginger”, and AwesomeBar searches through my history and bookmarks to return everything that matches that keyword, showing the first six and letting me scroll through the rest. You’ll notice here that several of the results are bookmarked (blue star icon on the right), and tagged (tag icon). The sites’ favicons are displayed on the left, making it really easy to scan through the results if you know what site you’re looking for in particular.

Check out Deb’s post for more on the AwesomeBar and check back here for more on the cool things to expect in Firefox 3!

| Trackbacks (35)

35 Responses to “A Little Something Awesome about Firefox 3”

1. 1

   Pingback from A Little Something Awesome about Firefox 3

   [...] Epicenter – Wired Blogs wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerpt [...]

   Added on April 21st, 2008 at 9:34 pm

2. 2

   Pingback from The Awesome Bar Excites Me! | Firefox Facts

   [...] I’ve been doing some additional reading this morning about Firefox’s address bar – which seems to be slowly converting over in the minds of the public to being renamed the awesome bar. [...]

   Added on April 23rd, 2008 at 4:24 am

3. 3

   Pingback from Pages tagged "awesome"

   [...] tagged awesomeOwn a Wordpress blog? Make monetization easier with the WP Affiliate Pro plugin. A Little Something Awesome about Firefox 3 saved by 2 others     kilikafinal bookmarked on 04/25/08 | [...]

   Added on April 25th, 2008 at 12:32 pm

4. 4

   Pingback from Mitchell’s Web2.0 Talk « DougT’s Blog

   [...] her usage of Firefox on the desktop. She routinely searches for “wheat free”, and the Awesome Bar searches her own history and bookmarks (as apposed to searching the web). Her need when she is [...]

   Added on April 25th, 2008 at 5:17 pm

5. 5

   Pingback from New Word - Frecency « DanielSmithDesigns Weblog

   [...] heard of ‘frecency” before? Neither had I until I visited The Mozilla Blog and read http://blog.mozilla.com/blog/2008/04/21/a-little-something-awesome-about-firefox-3/. It’s a combination of the words ‘frequency’ and ‘recency’ and refers [...]

   Added on May 2nd, 2008 at 10:31 am

6. 6

   Pingback from favicon display

   [...] newsletter, wrote one of the better explanations I??ve seen on the ???AwesomeBar,??? Firefox 3??http://blog.mozilla.com/blog/2008/04/21/a-little-something-awesome-about-firefox-3/Make a Animated Favicon / Scrolling Text For Your WebsiteAnimated Favicon: Now for the first time [...]

   Added on May 13th, 2008 at 5:12 pm

7. 7

   Pingback from Download Firefox, Set World Record : i tell stories

   [...] The list of updates on the new version of everyone’s favorite open-source browser is extensive. Among the big changes include a better bookmarking interface, faster speed, lower memory usage, and seamless plug-in management. And while I’ve been enjoying all those features in the betas and release candidates so far, the big selling point for me is the new awesome bar. [...]

   Added on January 17th, 2009 at 10:54 pm

8. 8

   Pingback from Lehrblogger :: Gmail Tip - Muting Filtered/Labeled Threads

   [...] link in a list email in my List-specific app, it will open in Firefox (and thus be, forever, in my AwesomeBar history). As an added bonus, I get a little red flag in the dock saying how many list emails I have [...]

   Added on January 20th, 2009 at 9:36 pm

9. 9

   Pingback from Firefox Eklentisi: UrlbarExt ile Adres Çubuğunu Zenginleştirin · Mürekkep - İnternet Yaşam Rehberiniz

   [...] içerisinde en güzel olanlardan birisi herhalde adres çubuğundaki zenginliktir. “Awesome Bar” olarak geçen bu bölüm belki de Firefox 3′ü diğer tarayıcılardan ayıran ve [...]

   Added on January 28th, 2009 at 7:14 am

10. 10

    Pingback from Reasons I cannot ditch Firefox « Breo Media Labs

    [...] The AwesomeBar [...]

    Added on January 31st, 2009 at 7:45 pm

11. 11

    Pingback from Online Marketing Blog » Blog Archive » Checking Redirects? Don’t trust Live HTTP Headers and Firefox

    [...] to check to verify the right header information is being transferred. Unfortunately, Firefox’s “awesome bar” (the part of the browser where you type the URL in) can cause Live HTTP headers to report the [...]

    Added on February 7th, 2009 at 12:34 am

12. 12

    Pingback from Firefox-Entwickler planen weiten Versionssprung | Blog von root_alpha

    [...] geplante Verbesserungen betreffen die Registerkarten (”tabbed browsing”), die Awesomebar und Funktionen für anonymes Surfen. Trotz Neubenennung werden nur Updates einfließen, die ohnehin [...]

    Added on March 7th, 2009 at 12:12 pm

13. 13

    Pingback from Web 3.0: The End of Search and Google’s Next Step |

    [...] or expand on them. These plugins change how the web works. Firefox’s recent addition of the “Awesome Bar” which by-passes search but the most extreme change will come with Ubiquity functionality. Ubiquity [...]

    Added on March 17th, 2009 at 12:59 pm

14. 14

    Pingback from Fennec (aka Firefox Mobile) | LOST IN MASTICATION

    [...] “Awesome” bar ala Firefox 3 [...]

    Added on March 18th, 2009 at 11:41 am

15. 15

    Pingback from The Future of Firefox: No Tabs, Built-In Ubiquity

    [...] of Ubiquity, a command-line style interface for common browser tasks, into Firefox’s ‘awesome bar.’ Mozilla plans to add this project, dubbed Taskfox, into the main Firefox interface by the [...]

    Added on April 14th, 2009 at 1:09 pm

16. 16

    Pingback from We Love Crowds » The Future of Firefox: No Tabs, Built-In Ubiquity

    [...] of Ubiquity, a command-line style interface for common browser tasks, into Firefox’s ‘awesome bar.’ Mozilla plans to add this project, dubbed Taskfox, into the main Firefox interface by the [...]

    Added on April 14th, 2009 at 1:09 pm

17. 17

    Pingback from The Future of Firefox: No Tabs, Built-In Ubiquity | Web News Aggregation

    [...] integration of Ubiquity, a command-line style interface for common browser tasks, into Firefox’s ‘awesome bar.’ Mozilla plans to add this project, dubbed Taskfox, into the main Firefox interface by the time [...]

    Added on April 14th, 2009 at 1:12 pm

18. 18

    Pingback from The Future of Firefox: No Tabs, Built-In Ubiquity | Spin Valley Post

    [...] of Ubiquity, a command-line style interface for common browser tasks, into Firefox’s ‘awesome bar.’ Mozilla plans to add this project, dubbed Taskfox, into the main Firefox interface by the [...]

    Added on April 14th, 2009 at 1:31 pm

19. 19

    Pingback from Technic News » The Future of Firefox: No Tabs, Built-In Ubiquity

    [...] of Ubiquity, a command-line style interface for common browser tasks, into Firefox’s ‘awesome bar.’ Mozilla plans to add this project, dubbed Taskfox, into the main Firefox interface by the [...]

    Added on April 14th, 2009 at 2:00 pm

20. 20

    Pingback from The Future of Firefox: No Tabs, Built-In Ubiquity | New Web 2.0 Magazine

    [...] of Ubiquity, a command-line style interface for common browser tasks, into Firefox’s ‘awesome bar.’ Mozilla plans to add this project, dubbed Taskfox, into the main Firefox interface by the [...]

    Added on April 14th, 2009 at 2:50 pm

21. 21

    Pingback from Firefox yeni marifetleriyle gelecek |

    [...] aynı zamanda Firefox 3.6 versiyonunda Firefox 3.0 ile gelen “awesome bar” özelliğinin içine Ubiquity (aynı anda birçok yerde bulunma) özelliğini [...]

    Added on April 14th, 2009 at 4:18 pm

22. 22

    Pingback from ArticleSave :: Uncategorized :: The Future of Firefox: No Tabs, Built-In Ubiquity

    [...] of Ubiquity, a command-line style interface for common browser tasks, into Firefox’s ‘awesome bar.’ Mozilla plans to add this project, dubbed Taskfox, into the main Firefox interface by the [...]

    Added on April 14th, 2009 at 11:11 pm

23. 23

    Pingback from Ship’s Biscuit » The Future of Firefox

    [...] Firefox have release some information about what they are planning for firefox 3.2, which looks like a complete redesign to bring in more in line with changing usage patterns. The 2 main areas of change seem to be reviewing/reworking the idea of tabbed browsing based on the itunes layout and integration of Ubiquity – project name Taskfox as part of the ‘Awesome Bar‘ [...]

    Added on April 15th, 2009 at 1:15 am

24. 24

    Pingback from "AwesomeBar" a Real Awesome About Firefox 3 | Discover All Thats's New on the Web

    [...] Firefox 3 the URL bar is being completely revamped in extremely exciting ways. In case of earlier firefox 2 [...]

    Added on April 15th, 2009 at 6:07 am

25. 25

    Pingback from The Future Of Firefox: No Tabs, Built-In Ubiquity | Mind Of Michael dot Com

    [...] of Ubiquity, a command-line style interface for common browser tasks, into Firefox’s ‘awesome bar.’ Mozilla plans to add this project, dubbed Taskfox, into the main Firefox interface by the [...]

    Added on April 15th, 2009 at 11:37 am

26. 26

    Pingback from No hay pestañas en el Firefox del futuro | Tecnodatum

    [...] nuevo Firefox incluirá integrará Ubiquity en su también nueva barra de direcciones (ver video). Es probable que veamos todas esta mejoras en la versión [...]

    Added on April 15th, 2009 at 5:19 pm

27. 27

    Pingback from The Future of Firefox: No Tabs, Built-In Ubiquity | BlogoFlux - Information Technology Blog

    [...] of Ubiquity, a command-line style interface for common browser tasks, into Firefox’s ‘awesome bar.’ Mozilla plans to add this project, dubbed Taskfox, into the main Firefox interface by the [...]

    Added on April 15th, 2009 at 5:47 pm

28. 28

    Pingback from 未来的Firefox | 我想网

    [...] － 以命令行的形式调用浏览器任务 － 集成到Firefox的’awesome bar.’ [...]

    Added on May 31st, 2009 at 12:39 am

29. 29

    Pingback from SmarterFox Makes You More Productive In FireFox « Kathy & Louis’ Love

    [...] articles to Wikipedia” feature will be shown a little further down and the enhancements to the AwesomeBar we did not try out because we do not use the AwesomeBar. But, according to the documentation, it [...]

    Added on June 25th, 2009 at 10:05 pm

30. 30

    Pingback from SmarterFox Makes You More Productive In FireFox | DodaPedia

    [...] to Wikipedia” feature will be shown a little further down and the enhancements to the AwesomeBar we did not try out because we do not use the AwesomeBar. But, according to the documentation, it [...]

    Added on June 26th, 2009 at 3:02 pm

31. 31

    Pingback from SmarterFox Makes You More Productive In FireFox | Design Website

    [...] to Wikipedia” feature will be shown a little further down and the enhancements to the AwesomeBar we did not try out because we do not use the AwesomeBar. But, according to the documentation, it [...]

    Added on June 26th, 2009 at 11:37 pm

32. 32

    Pingback from A Look At Opera 10.00 Beta | PCMech

    [...] AwesomeBar in Firefox sucks. Even in FF 3.5 it’s still a drag to use. You will realize why once you use [...]

    Added on July 6th, 2009 at 2:55 am

33. 33

    Pingback from Edward Andrew Robinson » Blog Archive » Using Firefox + NoRedirect Extension to Avoid DNS Hijacking

    [...] they take me to a search results page. This is how I brows the Internet, I do everything from the Awesome Bar (the bar in Firefox that you type your url into). And yesterday Bell broke [...]

    Added on August 1st, 2009 at 10:02 am

34. 34

    Pingback from Google Homepage – New Drop Down ‘Settings’ Menu – LINUX For You Magazine

    [...] box at the top right corner has been my gateway to the world wide web. Then a few months back, AwesomeBar made its way into our lives and voila, Ctrl+L and Ctrl+K became the most oft used shortcut of my [...]

    Added on September 4th, 2009 at 4:25 am

35. 35

    Pingback from Lehrblogger :: My Life in the Cloud – A Four-Computer Syncing Scheme

    [...] Support folder for this in Dropbox too, and this syncs everything: tabs, bookmarks, history, awesomebar, extensions, all of it. It was essential that this application work for the whole thing to be [...]

    Added on October 9th, 2009 at 12:50 am