It also occurred to me that this could potentially be a ripe means of phishing, couldn’t it?

Imagine if some scammer managed to get the #1 spot for a search that would otherwise redirect a user to Bank of America’s website? There is a reason banks in particular tell you to type their full address into the address bar to visit their site, rather than clicking on a link in an email you received. Links from a search engine should be considered just as unreliable.

Thanks for the nice writeup. Looks like most questions have been answered. As with most things, not every solution fits every person, which is why we are all about choice. I like the discussion here though, not that I’m surprised it’d happen here.

I would ask Erik if he thinks that the horribly named “.mobi” TLD should be the default TLD on mobile browsers, since, well, you’d think that people on mobile browser would want the content designed for mobile browsers, right? And that’s what TLD is for, right?

If not, for any number of citable reasons (poor adoption, use of the dot-m convention, etc), then he goes to prove our points that the location input should be used for that — shortcut conventions are just that: convenient. But, that doesn’t mean that they clarify things when the web is rife with spoofing and phishing sites that try to go after such “absent-minded conveniences”.

Fortunately OpenDNS also prevents against such types of attacks — and, interestingly enough, provides a safety fix to your well-loved featured.

So far it does seem to be nice and snappy, which is good.

Anyhow, hadn’t really heard much about it or looked into it, so thanks for the reminder.

I rarely use the .com auto-completion. In fact, I only ever use it when I know what I’ll get – apple/trailers for example, or nslog/searchterm (I’ve implemented a 404 search at my blog), or “microsoft” or “cnn” or some such site that I know exists at .com.

If I’m unsure of the domain, I use the search field in my browser.

The vast majority of the time, of course, I use LaunchBar, click an item in my Bookmarks Bar, or type a three-letter abbreviation and let TypeIt4Me expand out the full site (“hns” expands to “http://nslog.com/” for example).

In other words, when I want to search, I search. When I want to save typing a few characters and know where the browser will take me, I use the location field.

What OpenDNS does is show a different kind of “error, server not found” page if you type in an invalid URL. You guys are welcome to continue the conversation without me, just keep it civil.

It has nothing to do with pre-supposing “everyone” uses it. Clearly that can’t be supposed given that Alex doesn’t use it, nor does any OpenDNS customer.

Poorly argued.

Again, I submit to you the simple fact that turning the “location” bar into a duplicate of the “search” bar – effectively – costs you a feature. If and when we see more TLDs that somehow necessitate a change in behavior, I expect that the search tool will still be there.

To use a comparison, if I write a letter to a friend named Stephen Billings, I can’t just write Stephen Billings on the envelope and expect it to get where it’s going.

If you’re using this feature frequently enough that it makes a difference, well, that’s what bookmarks are for. Type it once and forget it.