From 725b8fcbca3db267cee943c64098d6caa77b8cab Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Wolfgang Müller Date: Sat, 12 Jun 2021 19:47:31 +0200 Subject: content: Add new post: "Did you mean to go to..." --- content/2/index.md | 31 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 31 insertions(+) create mode 100644 content/2/index.md 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://` 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. -- cgit v1.2.3-2-gb3c3