When you have your web browser set up to search in the address bar and when
you type a domain name (like www.google.com), does it search first?

Or does it not search first and just go there?

How does the browser know which to do first?

On 12/2/21 2:01 PM, this is what Your Name wrote:
> When you have your web browser set up to search in the address bar and when
> you type a domain name (like www.google.com), does it search first?
>
> Or does it not search first and just go there?
>
> How does the browser know which to do first?
As I type, mine does that suggested matches thing and as I get closer to www.bing.com it 100% matches it. All I do is hit enter and it
goes there. So technically it's doing some 'search' if nothing more than your history and bouncing off of the search engine for matches.

--
Linux Mint Cinnamon 20.2 64bit, Dell Inspiron 5570 laptop
Quad Core i7-8550U, 16G Memory, 512G SSD, 750G & 1TB HDDs

Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> wrote:

> When you have your web browser set up to search in the address bar and
> when you type a domain name (like www.google.com), does it search
> first?
>
> Or does it not search first and just go there?
>
> How does the browser know which to do first?

google.com will just go to the web site. You have not specified any
arguments in the URL to pass to the search engine. How would the site
know on what to search until you gave it some search criteria?

If you want to go to the search engine site, AND have it do a search,
then you have to pass arguments in the URL, like:

google.com/search?q=%s

where %s is the string you would enter into the search box at the site.
In fact, you can define bookmarks using the above syntax. Some web
browsers let you use keywords for bookmarks, like "g" would have the
above URL with args, so entering:

g firefox keyword bookmark

would use:

https://www.google.com/search?q=firefox%20keyword%20bookmark

to go to Google, and search on the string. The web browser is using the
keyword "g" defined in the bookmark along with the URL that you
specified in the bookmark to pass the resultant URL to the site.

If you are clicking on hyperlinks, well, the URL for the hyperlink
defines where to go, what path to use there, and what arguments to
include.

I don't enable pre-fetch searching in the address bar. In my Firefox,
about:preferences has all Search Suggestions disabled. You didn't say
how you configured your unidentified web browser.

https://www.google.com/search?q=firefox%20search%20suggestions
found:
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/search-suggestions-firefox

Substitute Firefox in the search with whatever is the name of your
unidentified web browser. That has the web browser send the [partial as
you type] string to whatever is your default search engine.

On Thu, 2 Dec 2021 at 14:46:06, VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> wrote (my
responses usually follow points raised):
>Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> wrote:
>
>> When you have your web browser set up to search in the address bar and
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

>> when you type a domain name (like www.google.com), does it search
>> first?
>>
>> Or does it not search first and just go there?
>>
>> How does the browser know which to do first?
>
>google.com will just go to the web site. You have not specified any
>arguments in the URL to pass to the search engine. How would the site
>know on what to search until you gave it some search criteria?
>
>If you want to go to the search engine site, AND have it do a search,
>then you have to pass arguments in the URL, like:
[rest snipped]

No. A lot of browsers can be set to search on what you enter in the
address bar, without explicitly even mentioning a search engine (they
use their default one, such as Google if you're using Chrome); I'm
pretty sure that is actually the default for at least Chrome and
Firefox, i. e. you have to go into settings if you _don't_ want it to
search.

For example, I just put

power supply

into the address box on a new tab in Chrome. It went to

https://www.google.com/search?q=power+supply&rlz=1C1GGRV_enGB782GB782&oq=
power+supply&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i61j69i60l2.5080j0j1&sourceid=chrome&ie=
UTF-8

To answer "Your Name"s query (or rather not to answer, but to guess): I
think if it doesn't recognise what you entered _as_ a URL, I think it
takes it as a search term. I'm pretty sure I've had the case where what
I entered wasn't recognised as a URL and it did a search, even though it
was a valid URL - quite irritating in fact; I had to prepend "www." to
it to make it actually go there rather than search for it. ("http://"
would probably have worked too, and more reliably - just more to type so
I didn't. And it might not have had an insecure site anyway.)
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Speed has never killed anyone. Suddenly becoming stationary, that's what gets
you. - Jeremy Clarkson, Top Gear

"J. P. Gilliver (John)" <G6JPG@255soft.uk> wrote:

> <V@nguard.LH> wrote:
>
>> Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> wrote:
>>
>>> When you have your web browser set up to search in the address bar and
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Unclear as there are multiple methods to get the web browser to send
strings to the search engine. I addressed two methods that I thought of
at the moment.

>>> when you type a domain name (like www.google.com), does it search
>>> first?

So, what, the OP wants to search on the google.com domain itself?

>>> Or does it not search first and just go there?
>>>
>>> How does the browser know which to do first?
>>
>> google.com will just go to the web site. You have not specified any
>> arguments in the URL to pass to the search engine. How would the
>> site know on what to search until you gave it some search criteria?
>>
>> If you want to go to the search engine site, AND have it do a search,
>> then you have to pass arguments in the URL, like:
>> [rest snipped]
>
> No. A lot of browsers can be set to search on what you enter in the
> address bar, ...

Already mentioned in the part you snipped. I covered how args in the
URL can pass the search criteria. I mentioned Search Suggestions, the
feature name in Firefox (the OP didn't mention his web browser to use
the correct feature name in his web browser).

Since you want to focus on just Search Suggestions, see:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/search-suggestions-firefox

As for exactly how Firefox implements address bar search suggestions,
I'm not delving into the code to find. Whatever is the default search
engine is what Firefox sends partial [as you type] strings.

On 2021-12-02 19:54:47 +0000, VanguardLH said:

> the OP wants to search on the google.com domain itself?

I only want to know how it works.
Somehow the browser figures out what's a doman and what's a question.

If I misspell something, the browser doesn't try to go there.
wwx.googlex.com

This site can't be reached
Check if there is a typo in wwx.googlex.com.
If spelling is correct, try running Windows Network Diagnostics.
DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN

Hmm. We're having trouble finding that site.
We can't connect to the server at wwx.googlex.com.
If that address is correct, here are three other things you can try:
Try again later.
Check your network connection.
If you are connected but behind a firewall, check that Firefox
has permission to access the Web.

How did it know that was a typo and not a search question asked of it?

Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> wrote:

> On 2021-12-02 19:54:47 +0000, VanguardLH said:
>
>> the OP wants to search on the google.com domain itself?
>
> I only want to know how it works.
> Somehow the browser figures out what's a doman and what's a question.
>
> If I misspell something, the browser doesn't try to go there.
> wwx.googlex.com
>
> This site can't be reached
> Check if there is a typo in wwx.googlex.com.
> If spelling is correct, try running Windows Network Diagnostics.
> DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN
>
> Hmm. We're having trouble finding that site.
> We can't connect to the server at wwx.googlex.com.
> If that address is correct, here are three other things you can try:
> Try again later.
> Check your network connection.
> If you are connected but behind a firewall, check that Firefox
> has permission to access the Web.
>
> How did it know that was a typo and not a search question asked of it?

Web browsers, e-mail clients, and many other programs will look for
strings that look like URLs. That's how, for example, you can get an
e-mail with www.google.com somewhere in the body of the message, and
your e-mail client sees the string matches the syntax for a URL, and the
e-mail client makes it a clickable string. It isn't a hyperlink defined
by an HTML <A> anchor tag, but just a string that will match on the
syntax for a URL. Web browsers can do the same.

Convenience code is not always correct. It guesses what you intended to
enter versus what you actually entered.

On Thu, 2 Dec 2021 at 21:54:47, VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> wrote (my
responses usually follow points raised):
>"J. P. Gilliver (John)" <G6JPG@255soft.uk> wrote:
>
>> <V@nguard.LH> wrote:
>>
>>> Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> When you have your web browser set up to search in the address bar and
>> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
>Unclear as there are multiple methods to get the web browser to send
>strings to the search engine. I addressed two methods that I thought of
>at the moment.

The default (in Chrome and Firefox at least) is to search. WITHOUT any
parameters such as "&search=".
>
>>>> when you type a domain name (like www.google.com), does it search
>>>> first?
>
>So, what, the OP wants to search on the google.com domain itself?

The OP chose a very poor example there. S/he meant, if you type
something that may or may not _be_ a URL, does the browser try it
(presumably on a DNS) first, or pipe it straight to (the default) search
engine?

(You will say I'm guessing what the OP meant. You'd be right, but
reading the rest of hir question, I'm pretty sure that's what s/he was
asking.)
[]
>>>> How does the browser know which to do first?
>>>
>>> google.com will just go to the web site. You have not specified any

I think browsers - where they _are_ set to search, by default - will
take anything containing a dot not with no spaces around it as being a
URL. But I don't _know_ that. Certainly anything starting with "www."
I'm pretty sure they will, and of course anything with a :// in it.

>>> arguments in the URL to pass to the search engine. How would the
>>> site know on what to search until you gave it some search criteria?

I'm pretty sure the OP was asking about when you _don't_ "specify
parameters" (sorry, you said "arguments"), but just put words in the
box.
>>>
>>> If you want to go to the search engine site, AND have it do a search,
>>> then you have to pass arguments in the URL, like:
>>> [rest snipped]
>>
>> No. A lot of browsers can be set to search on what you enter in the
>> address bar, ...
>
>Already mentioned in the part you snipped. I covered how args in the
>URL can pass the search criteria. I mentioned Search Suggestions, the

In the part _you_ snipped, I covered the case - which is what I think
the OP was asking about - of not "passing args" as an explicit act, but
just for example putting

power supply

in the address/search box. Not '&search="power supply"' or similar.
[]
>https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/search-suggestions-firefox

That's for fine-tuning searches. The OP was, I think, just asking: if
you just put simple words in the box (as my example above), does the
browser - assuming it has been left at the default which is to search -
even try treating them as a URL first, or send them straight to its
search engine of choice? I don't know the answer: I _think_ it's that
they mostly do _some_ analysis of the entered string, looking for
(certainly :// and probably) www., and treat those as a URL; possibly
treating anything with a space in it (as in my example) as a search
term.
>
>As for exactly how Firefox implements address bar search suggestions,
>I'm not delving into the code to find. Whatever is the default search
>engine is what Firefox sends partial [as you type] strings.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Norman Tebbitt has the irritating quality of being much nicer in person than
he is in print. - Clive Anderson, RT 1996/10/12-18