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Comment by soneca | Hacker News Reader

Tangentially, I noticed that when I start typing a word in my Chrome URL input field, it started to privilege Google searches instead of websites I normally visit.

It is very annoying to type "n <enter>" and it goes on to search any query starting with "n" that I happened to have searched in the past instead of going to HN as it was the case for the last several years.

It is happening now with all my usual "shortcuts".

Chrome now is less a browser and more a Google widget.

I wonder if I change the default search engine to DuckDuckGo it would still be the case.

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This is a chrome flag you can toggle: omnibox-drive-suggestions

Alternatively, use Firefox.

Firefox is slightly better in this regard but it still searches when what you typed isn't a prefix match for something in your history,bookmarks,whatever.

It's extremely annoying behavior and the go-to add-on "Enter Selects" that fixes doesn't work with WebExtensions.

https://github.com/Mardak/enterSelects/issues/16

Does preferences->search->provide search suggestions=(unchecked) not do what you want?

I just tried, it didn't really change it.

How to reproduce the problem:

* Create a bookmark for "Hacker News" as news.ycombinator.com.

* In the omnibar type "Hacker New" and see that "Search with Google" is selected and that second suggestion is the bookmark.

I would like these to be reversed and the top bookmark/history/whatever item is selected over search.

Also in Firefox you can opt to have an entirely separate search box and address box.....it's somewhere in appearance settings.

Hamburger menu -> customise -> drag the search box onto the toolbar. Cmd + k (on mac at least) will focus it ready for your search.

I have a separate search and address box! It doesn't change the behavior.

If you have a bookmark "Hello World!" pointing to "example.com" and type "Hello" the selected option will be "Search with Google" and not the top bookmark entry.

I remember when that used to be the default and then Chrome came along with the omnibox and changed the game.

Firefox (at least for me) does the same thing and pushes search results before websites. I have to arrow or tab down 4-5 selections before I get to the first website result in the url/search bar.

Options->Search->untick "Show search suggestions ahead of browsing history in address bar results"

Not sure why you were immediately downvoted. This is absolutely correct. Firefox only prioritizes websites over search when what you typed in the omnibar is an exact prefix match for a site.

Take a bookmark for mail.mycompany.com bookmarked as "Email" -- if you type "mai..." it will complete but if you type "emai..." it will search.

I avoid Chrome on all but specific work use-cases. Have noticed a big improvement in battery usage while it's not running.

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