[Features] Customization of UI, synonyms, disabling on certain sites and disable automatic on

[Marin-Kitagawa]

1. Let us customize the UI such as fonts, toolbar position, toolbar size, etc. (using CSS, perhaps).
2. Disable on certain sites. For example, if I search via the browser's URL bar, MMS must be disabled since it makes no sense to highlight keywords automatically on Google or DDG since they provide relevant results already.
3. Add an option to highlight the synonyms (including the words in other languages, if possible).
4. Don't turn it on automatically. Add an option to control this behavior.
5. it will be better to have a vertical toolbar instead of a horizontal one. Imagine the following scenario: I use the URL bar to search (note that Google and Bing have AI-assisted replies). Now, I will type several words as I speak in a conversation. Now, the horizontal toolbar will pick up every word that I wrote and include them in the search term. If I want to eliminate some words for reuse, vertical ones provide better readability in my opinion.

PS: I was searching for an extension like this for a long time. I love this extension so much. Hope the changes take place.

[DavidGP]

4. Don't turn it on automatically. Add an option to control this behavior.

I've been looking for this option a long time as well. Is it really not available? I feel that Mark My Search can get in the way at times, and then there doesn't seem a way to easily or temporarily disable it.

Also, please add more explanatory text (on hover) for the settings page. The option settings are still overwhelming and confusing for me, although I have been using the extension for a long time.

Of course, this extension is the best search add-on ever and at least since SearchWP for Firefox was discontinued a decade ago! Thanks so much and keep up the excellent work.

[ator-dev]

Hi, thank you so much for both of your comments! I'm really happy you like Mark My Search.

Unfortunately it's a busy time for me, which is why I hadn't replied earlier. In just a few weeks I'm going to be completely free, but for now, I will just respond to the points raised. 🙂

Note: When using the Options page, remember to save your changes! I'm aware it's not a great system, and I'm looking into making it easier to use.

1

Let us customize the UI such as fonts, toolbar position, toolbar size, etc. (using CSS, perhaps).

We have some customisation in the Options page, under the headings "Controls to show in the toolbar" and "Toolbar style and icons".

• Yes, I can allow fonts!
• Toolbar alignment (left or right) is something I plan to allow.
• The font size also controls the toolbar size, though I could add an extra setting for padding?

2

Disable on certain sites. For example, if I search via the browser's URL bar, MMS must be disabled since it makes no sense to highlight keywords automatically on Google or DDG since they provide relevant results already.

We don't have great support for this just yet (ideally there would be a single setting for "detected search engines"), but you can disable highlighting on certain sites!

Note: There's a really annoying issue right now where the site entries filter out more than they should. For example, google.com/search would also filter out google.com/example/search. I have the fix, but I don't have the time to prepare a release quite yet.

3

Add an option to highlight the synonyms (including the words in other languages, if possible).

This is a really hard problem! I don't think I can add this, but I'll think about it later.

4

Don't turn it on automatically. Add an option to control this behavior.

There's a setting for this, but confusingly, it's not in the Options page but in the Popup 😅

5

it will be better to have a vertical toolbar instead of a horizontal one.

For only some situations, or to be turned on all the time? I think a vertical toolbar would get in the way in a lot of places, because many sites have a sidebar, and sometimes people use quite long keywords in Mark My Search. What about if you can activate this mode with a (hideable) button in the toolbar?

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P.S. There's a big overhaul coming which is finally approaching completion. It improves things like the Options page, and adds a highlighting engine which uses brand new web features (they're not in Firefox quite yet). But most importantly, I'm making the code much cleaner, which will help keep me motivated and reduce hard-to-fix bugs in the future!

[ator-dev]

@DavidGP

I feel that Mark My Search can get in the way at times, and then there doesn't seem a way to easily or temporarily disable it.

I hope my answer in the comment above is useful. Since you're a past user of SearchWP, I'm interested in how MMS is different in this regard. You see, although SearchWP was the inspiration, I never saw it in action - it's just that my dad previously used it!

Is the problem that MMS highlights the search result pages (for example, Google search results), that it shouldn't turn on automatically, or that it should turn on but not display highlights until you tell it to?

Also, please add more explanatory text (on hover) for the settings page.

Yes, sorry, I know the Options page is a problem area! I'm planning to make separate sub-pages for related settings, and add expanded descriptions, would that fix the issue?

[DavidGP]

I hope my answer in the comment above is useful. Since you're a past user of SearchWP, I'm interested in how MMS is different in this regard. You see, although SearchWP was the inspiration, I never saw it in action - it's just that my dad previously used it!

@ator-dev, thank you very much for your comments and extensive explanations about the issues in this thread. Sorry for not responding earlier and for not elaborating further for the time being, especially about SearchWP. However, I will absolutely do so as soon as I get around to it, because there is a lot to say about this legendary Firefox add-on.

Also, I will prepare a portable copy of an old Firefox version for you where you can try SearchWP for yourself and hopefully get even more inspiration for your world-class extension Mark My Search!

Thanks for hanging in there a little longer until I can get back to you with this.