How to have url bar drop down list be simple recent history
I would like a simple recent history list displayed when I click on the down-arrow on the right end of URL entry box. By which I mean a simple most-recently-visited-on-the-top list of URLs. What I get by default is a list that makes absolutely no sense to me, is in some unknown order, and is of no value whatsoever. I have no idea what algorithm is used to populate the list that is displayed leaving the URL line completely blank. I can't find an option that would set this list mode. I find the awesome bar awesomely annoying as is.
Chosen solution
The drop down arrow at the far right shows a list of websites that you have typed or pasted in the location bar based on frecency (visit bonus points).
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I'm not sure what that list is... it seems to be sites I've visited during the current session, but the order isn't obvious.
(The bar works best as a search tool, i.e., type a few characters and get the most frequently/recently visited matches, as well as similar bookmarks.)
If no one can think of a specific setting for this, you might need an add-on. You can search here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/
As a temporary workaround, you might consider using the History drop-down menu or History sidebar (Ctrl+h => you may need to use the View button to change the order).
Thanks much for you reply. I don't know why it did not dawn on me that the menu bar History item will display what I want - DUH! IE does not have a History item easily accessible from its menu bar (buried under Favorites - a few more clicks needed), and I guess that since I used IE for such a long time I did not even notice that History is easily accessed on the Firefox menu bar. I agree that the URL line that follows you along as you type (autocomplete) is quite useful; IE has that feature as well so it seemed quite "normal" to see that behavior in Firefox. Also as you state, I can see no discernible pattern to what is displayed in the drop down list when the URL box is left empty. Perhaps someday the programmer will describe the algorithm.
Chosen Solution
The drop down arrow at the far right shows a list of websites that you have typed or pasted in the location bar based on frecency (visit bonus points).
Thanks to cor-el for pointing to the algorithm that describes how the list is populated. However, it seems like a lot of work to make the content of the list not very useful, at least by my definition of useful and, it appears from other I know, not useful to them either. I'm a software developer myself and am quite aware that things that seem useful, "cool" or "cute" to a developer may not appear that way to end users - one of the problems of knowing the software too well from the inside coupled with a large dose of "group think". In any case, I know now I what is going on, will ignore it completely, will use the History item on the File menu to achieve what I wanted in the first place, and will use that list only as a mechanism for auto-completing what I am typing into the URL line - which does work well, and is useful to me.