@Kovid - It was a fresh install of V7.26 Portable into an empty directory, so all the Preference settings were at their install defaults.
The "[:1]:8080/web-search/1/authors/John Schember?library_id=Calibre_Library" URL in the browser came from calibre when I clicked on John Schember. I have no idea what it even means… although I can hazard a guess.
When I click on John Schember in the GUI the relevant Goodreads page opens on a fresh tab in my Firefox. ✔
Maybe the error is caused by my network or Firefox config, or one of the addons I use in it. So, I just did some more tests: I think it's something to do with caching/restarting.
I set it to Search for the author on Wikipedia, restarted calibre and cleared browser cache. When I clicked on John Schember in desktop and server I got a not found WikiP page ✔
I stopped server, changed it back to Search for Author on Goodreads, started server, clicked on John Schember and the same WikiP page popped
I stopped server, restarted calibre, started server, clicked on John Schember and the Goodreads page popped ✔
My conclusion, a change to the
Prefs->L&F->BD->Clicking on author names should: setting requires a calibre restart. Could be Portable only. Or it could be my Firefox and/or network config; although they are both very straight forward.
Given this investigation was for Curiosity’s Sake… i.e. I don't want to use the server… I won't pursue the issue further. Feel free let me know of you want me to try anything specific.
BR