[LINK] Why does Firefox send non-URL text in the location bar to Google etc.?

[Alex (Maxious) Sadleir]

On Mon, Jan 3, 2011 at 6:34 PM, David Goldstein <wavey_one at yahoo.com> wrote:
> What's so scary about people not using URLs or bookmarks?
>
Think about users trying to access something more serious like
internet banking.
I don't think Google would let an actual malicious page get that high
(#1) before being removed but the fact that a blog post with the right
title/inbound links is able to rise so quickly and so high against a
giant like facebook is a little worrying.
If you're a competing bank, maybe you could have a "Why ***login*** to
***NiceBank*** Internet Banking when you can get a better deal at
EvilBank?" blogpost and take the attention of their customers for a
few seconds?
>
> ----- Original Message ----
>> From: Alex (Maxious) Sadleir <maxious at gmail.com>
>> To: Link mailing list <link at anu.edu.au>
>> Sent: Mon, 3 January, 2011 7:25:57 PM
>> Subject: Re: [LINK] Why does Firefox send non-URL text in the location bar to
>>Google etc.?
>>
>> On Mon, Jan 3, 2011 at 3:47 PM, Robin Whittle <rw at firstpr.com.au> wrote:
>> > If most people don't know, or don't care about information leakage
>> > like this, then its a worry.  I didn't know about it and at present I
>> > don't know how to stop it.
>> A scary number of people don't even use URLs or bookmarks - they just
>> type the words "facebook login" into their address bar/search engine
>> and click on the first result. Unfortunately at some point that first
>> result changed from facebook.com and instead pointed to a popular blog
>> as they document here:
>> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/how_google_failed_internet_meme.php
>>
>> > I couldn't find where in the settings for Firefox to control this
>> > pernicious behaviour.
>> Firefox hides a lot of power user settings under a special URL
>> "about:config" so as to not unnecessarily confuse the above mentioned
>> demographic.
>> To disable the "keyword search" feature:
>> 1. Enter "about:config" into the Firefox address bar, hit enter, and
>> accept the warning message that appears
>> 2. Enter "keyword" into the "Filter:" box
>> 3. Double click on the preference "keyword.enable" so it's value
>> changes to "false".
>> If an invalid URL is entered (has spaces etc.), instead of a Google
>> search being launched the message "The URL is not valid and cannot be
>> loaded." will appear. If a single word is entered Firefox will attempt
>> to access http://www.word.com  (eg "facebook" becomes
>> http://www.facebook.com). You can also alter the URL (preference name
>> "keyword.URL") to point to an alternative search engine, as the Yahoo
>> toolbar does. The keywords are appended to the URL specified.
>>
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