Safari search field context-sensitive "del"

[dmm153]

Completion suggestions sometimes appear (grayed out) as I type in the safari search field, and behavior of the delete key depends on whether safari can come up with a suggestion. If there's no suggestion and I "delete", then my most previous character is deleted and the cursor backspaces one position... just like delete is expected to do. On the other hand, if there is a suggestion, the delete key only removes the suggestion - it does not backspace and remove a character. This is context sensitive behavior particular to safari - nowhere else is this done. What it means is I can't type without keeping an eye on the field to see which way it's going to behave when I delete. This bug was added as a feature maybe a couple years ago, there's no way to defeat it, and I find it offensive. I filed a ticket but it was ignored. Who else does this issue bother? Thx. The correct behavior would be to - don't change the normal behavior of the delete key, and then remove your suggestion.

 

[BrianBaughn]

I don't use Safari on a regular basis. But…testing it in Monterey I don't see what you're describing. What are your settings at Safari>Preferences>Search?

 

[dmm153]

Hey Brian, thanks for the reply. Re: Safari>Preferences>Search, I have DuckDuckGo selected as my search engine and all the other boxes are unchecked. I basically turned off all the optional features while examining this issue. I just (now) typed "for" in a new page search field and it suggested "forums.macrumors.com" - no surprise since I've been to this page recently. Then I typed a "d" and the suggestion changed to "fordstoremorganhill.com", a site I don't recall ever having been to. I ran a couple other tests like this - doesn't seem like I needed to have visited a page for it to come up as a suggestion.

 

[chabig]

Mine behaves as you described, but I never noticed it before and it does not bother me. Do you know that DDG has its own settings?

DuckDuckGo Settings

Customize DuckDuckGo to your liking! For example, change the fonts and colors, or boost results from your region.

duckduckgo.com

Turn this one off.

 

[dmm153]

Thanks for the reply chabig, yeah, I've done that. The symptoms are search engine independent - work this way for google, too. It's almost certainly a safari thing.

 

[dmm153]

One more thing - I'm on Big Sur, safari 15.5. Could be Monterey changed this behavior because I complained!

 

[Nermal]

Completion suggestions sometimes appear (grayed out) as I type in the safari search field

Suggestions are black on my system (OS 12.5.1). Can you post a screenshot?

 

[dmm153]

Thanks. I'll do that from the outset next time. In the following I type "for" and it gave me "forums.macrumors.com", then I hit the delete key and was left with "for" (expected behavior would be to see "fo"). I clear the field and typed "forf" for which there was no suggestion and hit delete and got "for" (as expected).

... not grayed out as I said - more like highlighted. From my point of view I typed "for" + del and nothing happened in case 1 and in case 2 I typed "forf" + del and got "for".

 

[Nermal]

Thanks for the screenshots. I thought you were talking about the dropdown list that appears with suggestions in it, so it's good to get on the same page.

I'm not sure that this is a bug, per se. When nothing is selected, the delete key removes the most recently-typed character. When something is selected, delete removes the selection.

The problem is that the text is being automatically selected in the first place. From a design standpoint that seems 'wrong' to me, although I understand why it does it that way (so that when you continue to type, it can replace the suggestion). I'd never actually noticed the inconsistency until you pointed it out, so presumably Apple considered it to be a necessary evil.

 

[dmm153]

Good observation. If the delete key removed the highlighted suggestion and THEN backspaced and removed a character, that could also be considered unexpected behavior. I'd settle for a switch that would turn off the search field suggestions, putting them all into the dropdown - like the good ole days.

I just looked at the preferences and there is a "Include Safari Suggestions" check box, but it only becomes active when I select "Include Search Engine Suggestions"; the behavior is the same either way. As you say, not a bug - let's call it a UX challenge...