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| -rw-r--r-- | content/2/index.md | 31 |
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diff --git a/content/2/index.md b/content/2/index.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..16f748c --- /dev/null +++ b/content/2/index.md @@ -0,0 +1,31 @@ ++++ +date = 2021-06-12T19:47:12+02:00 +title = "Did you mean to go to..." + +[taxonomies] +tags = ["TIL"] ++++ + +In recent versions of Firefox, single words are looked up via DNS when you enter +them in the URL bar. If the word resolves, the browser "helpfully" indicates +that there's a page at `http://<word>` to visit. + +Weird feature, though when taken at face value I can see its usefulness with a +combined search and URL bar. Ideally you'd have completely different semantics +for searching and (direct) browsing, but I don't think something like this is +forthcoming. If anything I'd expect direct browsing to be ever more discouraged. +Nowadays search engines, not browsers, are the gateway to the internet. + +In any case, turns out this feature also has [interesting +side-effects](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/1642623) with (browser-based) DoH +turned on. If you ever need to turn it off, Firefox 78 added the following +about:config switch: + +``` +browser.urlbar.dnsResolveSingleWordsAfterSearch +``` + +Not that I think this is a great solution. If anything DoH should be done on a +system-wide level (with local queries sent to your router or resolved through +mDNS) and there should be a way of trusting your router's DNS to not forward +local queries to your ISP. |