The automatic navigation feature is a bit of an unofficial gizmo feature that was implemented in an early stage. Although it is a pretty cool feature, we've not promoted it due to some issues with it.
Primo - As we emit all keystrokes, not just the "safe" modhex ones, we are subject to keyboard layout variations. An URL that works on a US keyboard may very well not work on a German one as the scan codes maps to different keys - www.yubico.com would be www.zubico.com
Secundo - The feature is Windows specific and as we claim that the Yubikey works on all platforms, this feature somewhat invalidates the statement.
Tertio - We make a "reasonable delay" after enumeration until the point we emit the URL. This "reasonable delay" is for example too short at the first insertion when the hardware is installed. Another issue when we now added support for pre-boot enumeration is that the URL string gets sent out nowhere at that point, potentially flooding the BIOS setup with some garbage.
Quarto - The feature in can in theory open up for some subtle attacks where "rougue keys" can launch bad things or go to bad sites, just like the highly criticized "CD autorun" feature.
There are a few more things, but in summary - the feature really does not work in a practical setting. That's life...
We're going through some validation stages and security reviews and feel very tempted to simply delete the feature due to the reasons listed above. But I very much know that there are quite a few people who really likes the feature. I somewhat guess it is more for personal use than for "professional" settings.
So the question is - what do you all say ? Will we get a swarm of upset users or shall we keep it "as is" in a kind of unsupported way where you explicitly need to enable the feature if you want it ?
Regards,
Jakob E
Hardware- and firmware guy @ Yubico