Address bar overwrites what I've written when page finishes loading
When I want to do a google search I open a new tab and write my query into the address bar. Usually I open the new tab by finding a link on the current tab and opening it in a new tab. This works quite poorly because I usually start typing before the page has finished loading, and once the page has finished loading everything I've written up to that point is removed and replaced with the URL for the page I opened. Example:
From the current page I suddenly get the urge to google for good pasta recipies. So I right click the mozilla support banner and open it in a new tab. I go to that tab, click the address bar and start to write "best pasta recipie". In the middle of writing that sentence the page is done loading (which I don't realize, because I never learn, apparently) which means that what I end up submitting is 'https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/sta recipie'. To my disappointment I'm not redirected to a google search for the best pasta recipie.
This is incredibly annoying, since I run into this several times a day on average.
All Replies (7)
This is regular Firefox behavior.
This is because when you click to open a link in a new tab, Firefox will begin to the load the built in new tab page (about:newtab) before directing the page to the link that you selected. The default new tab page does not display a URL in the address bar.
There is naturally a delay between Firefox opening the new tab and actually starting to load the content because computer codes are run one at a time. This delay may be more noticeable on older or slow systems. As far as I know, there is no way to change this behavior.
However, if I may suggest a work around to your issue, I would recommend adding the Firefox search bar to your toolbar and typing your search engine keywords in this instead of the location bar. You may also get a better result by clicking the new tab button in the tab bar to open a blank new tab instead of attempting to load content from the open in new tab option.
Wesley Branton said
This is regular Firefox behavior.
This is because when you click to open a link in a new tab, Firefox will begin to the load the built in new tab page (about:newtab) before directing the page to the link that you selected. The default new tab page does not display a URL in the address bar.
There is naturally a delay between Firefox opening the new tab and actually starting to load the content because computer codes are run one at a time. This delay may be more noticeable on older or slow systems. As far as I know, there is no way to change this behavior.
However, if I may suggest a work around to your issue, I would recommend adding the Firefox search bar to your toolbar and typing your search engine keywords in this instead of the location bar. You may also get a better result by clicking the new tab button in the tab bar to open a blank new tab instead of attempting to load content from the open in new tab option.
That explanation isn't fully consistent with my experience of the problem. From what I can see if I open a slower page than mozilla.org (what page you're browsing to seems to matter) is that yes, the page starts with no url, then the url is added and you can see that the page is loading (both on the spinning wheel icon on the tab and on the fact that content starts popping up on the actual page). This happens really fast, by the way - so fast I can barely start typing before it's done even if I try my best.
Then, once the page stops loading (the spinning wheel disappears and the page stops sprouting new content), what's written in the address bar is once again replaced with the url for the page, even though the user is typing.
I understand if the first url-replace is hard to get around but the second seems completely unnecessary. And even if there is a workaround (that I've tried to switch to but failed because of force of habit) this behavior should be replaced because throwing away user input like that is really bad design.
Best would be to open a new tab via the plus instead of opening a link. You can possibly press the ESC key to stop the page loading if you aren't interested in the page/link that you have opened.
You can look at this extension to set the new tab page if you do not want to use the about:newtab page with the tiles:
- New Tab Override: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/new-tab-override/
I have attempted to reproduce your issue, but haven't been able to. The URL does not replace content on my end.
Do you have any addons installed on your version of Firefox, specifically ones that will modify the appearance of Firefox?
If you don't, perhaps you should report this issue to the developers on Bugzilla so that they can take a look into patching this issue in newer versions of Firefox.
Do you have test pilot installed? When I have the activity stream activated the new tab page.
If you filed a bug, can you post the url to the thread please. Thank you.
I do not have the test pilot installed. I'm using ordinary firefox and has done so for years - this is something I've encountered on multiple OSes and on multiple computers.
The bug case can be found here: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1275041
Sorry for the wait.
If the page is still in the connecting state and doesn't show the URL in the location bar then best is to press the ESC key to stop the loading if you do not want to visit this page, but want to open another page. Otherwise Firefox will overwrite what you type once it has confirmed that the URL is valid.