BrowserDefaults

Differences between revisions 7 and 9 (spanning 2 versions)
⇤ ← Revision 7 as of 2005-11-02 20:34:15 →
Size: 4282
Editor: 209
Comment: BoF work
← Revision 9 as of 2005-11-03 20:59:49 → ⇥
Size: 3579
Editor: 209
Comment: add use cases, move stuff to StartUbuntucom
Deletions are marked like this. Additions are marked like this.
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 * Sally loads Ubuntu and wants to search the web. She doesn't see a search bar in amongst the giant page of text.
 * Corey wants let more people know about help.ubuntu.com and get more docteam members.
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==== Comparisons ====

Modern dedicated Web browsers have useful default home pages that let you search the Web.
 * mozilla.org Firefox: [http://www.google.com/firefox Firefox Start]
 * gnome.org Epiphany: [http://www.google.com/ Google]
 * Internet Explorer: [http://www.msn.com/ MSN]
 * Safari: [http://apple.netscape.com/ Netscape.com (Apple edition)]
 * Opera: [http://portal.opera.com/ Opera Search]

==== Ubuntu ====

The default home page for Firefox and Epiphany will be `http://start.ubuntu.com/`. It ''may'' be possible to use this to count new Ubuntu users, and if we decide to change the effective default later on we can do that by setting up a redirect.

What is presented on this site is yet to be decided, but it should:
 * be useful
 * not steal focus from the URL field
 * provide links to local (GeoIP-detected) Ubuntu resources
 * not slow people down by discouraging them from the browser's/OS's toolbar Web search.		 This has now been split into StartUbuntucom

Summary

Ubuntu's default home page for Firefox and Epiphany will be changed to http://start.ubuntu.com/, and the default bookmarks will be altered to include information accurate for Ubuntu.

Rationale

When you install Firefox or Epiphany for Ubuntu, its default home page is [file:///usr/share/ubuntu-artwork/home/index.html a local file full of boring text]. Epiphany's default bookmarks are confusing, and Firefox's default bookmarks don't link to plugins that don't actually work in Ubuntu. We can do better.

Use cases

  • Sally loads Ubuntu and wants to search the web. She doesn't see a search bar in amongst the giant page of text.
  • Corey wants let more people know about help.ubuntu.com and get more docteam members.

Scope

  • Home page
  • Bookmarks menu
  • Bookmarks Bar

Out of scope:

  • CA certificates
  • default browser chrome

Design

Home page

This has now been split into StartUbuntucom

Bookmarks

The default bookmarks should also be (a) useful, and (b) a subtle hint to how to use bookmark folders (Firefox) or topics (Epiphany).

Comparisions

Vanilla Firefox has "Quick Searches" and "Firefox & Mozilla Links" folders in its Bookmarks menu, including links to pages of plugins that don't work in Ubuntu. In its Bookmarks Toolbar it has a "Getting Started" bookmark (again linking to non-working plugins), in the Bookmarks Toolbar and "Latest"

Vanilla Epiphany defaults to six empty folders in its Bookmarks menu, which looks broken, and a search field in its Bookmarks Bar, which is confusing:

Ubuntu

Default bookmarks for Ubuntu:

Implementation

Code

Data preservation and migration

Outstanding issues

BoF agenda and discussion

BrowserDefaults (last edited 2008-08-06 16:29:14 by localhost)