By the same token we shouldn't need all that crap in omnibox either. It is all about the quality of information and decluttering

I quite like that the omni box will do math and unit conversions. So handy, so simple.

I think parent point was that if it was well done we would like it in the start menu, but if it was only 99% ok or below we would hate it.

Omnibox sucked until it reached a point where it didn't.

But microsoft is so focused on competing to google's product that they fail to realize they don't even need to go there.

With that said, we're talking about a company who can't even search properly for the installed app given the infinite resource of a modern computer and an app list below a hundred, so I don't want them to make the search menu/search any more of a disaster.

Or maybe omnibox sucked until search got so bad that omnibox is better.

Right. We all know how this would end up:

Start->Begin Typing->Wait 10 seconds as the menu hangs because it can't resolve some ad

That’s…already how it is? I seriously cannot believe how bad the start menu still is in 2021 given how limited the scope of core functionality is. Somehow, simply surfacing the main entry points into dozens of GUI applications is a Herculean task that a modern OS simply cannot accomplish.

I get really annoyed when I shop for a part number that has a - and $searchEngine just wants to show me the answer to a subtraction question.

Quotes, "this-string must-exist", is a pattern that all search tools really need to obey. Though I do give them slack if they also match runs of equivalent word-character-only strings E.G. "this string must exist" in the same search.

But it’s because of an execution problem. On Apple devices nobody complains that Spotlight searches the web, most people like it.

seriously I hate that they randomly add websearch results to the search bar so much