A few months ago we changed the default search behavior so that it takes users to the search results page instead of an explicit match. The reasoning was:
- If the user has Javascript, they can click on a result from the drop-down.
- If the user doesn't have Javascript, we should send them to the full search results since they don't otherwise have a way to access it.
I was fairly skeptical of this approach when it was implemented, but decided to go along with it and see what the reaction was. We now have an official complaint, so I think we should revisit the issue.
Although it is more complicated to implement, I think the search bar should work as follows:
- If the user has Javascript, and they hit enter, the user should be sent to an exact match (if there is one).
- If the user doesn't have Javascript, and they hit enter, the user should be sent to the search results page regardless.
(The difference is whether we pass 'fulltext' in the search submission.)
Complaint can be read at https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Grease_pit/2014/April#Diacritic_differentiation_in_search_box (skip the first few posts).
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