Bug#426401: Search bar behavior reverted to firefox one

[Nathaniel Smith]

I can also confirm this bug -- since my last upgrade I've been running
into it every 5 minutes :-(.

To be clear: it used to be that if I typed "foo bar" (i.e., a string
with a space in it) into the url bar and pressed enter, then epiphany
went to the google search page for "foo bar".  Alternatively, I could
type "foo bar", and then use down-arrow to choose "Search the web" and
press enter, and that would also send me to a google results page.
Now, I can still use down-arrow to choose "Search the web", and that
works the same as it used to, but if I simply hit enter on the address
bar, then I get a modal popup saying "The URL is not valid and cannot
be loaded.", and (adding injury to insult) the address bar gets
cleared so I have to retype my query.

In my about:config I have:
  keyword.URL = http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=
  keyword.enabled = true
So it's not that that's disabled.

Oddly, my memory is that if I typed "foo bar" and hit enter, what
actually happened is that it went via a magic url like "keyword:foo
bar".  But now, if I type "keyword:foo bar" in the url line
explicitly, then I get a popup error "keyword is not a registered
protocol".

In my use, I tend to do many more searches than actual typing of URLs,
and this bug dramatically impacts Epiphany's usability.  If I'm
typical, then this bug's severity would more properly be "important".

-- Nathaniel