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Comment by gcp | Hacker News Reader

I've found the cases you describe to be one of these areas where Firefox seems to behave way superior than Chrome. It's not entirely as advanced as you describe of course, but usually just typing parts of a few key words returns a list of relevant sites you've ever been to, and the ranking is very good. The algorithm seems to even take into account whether you originally typed in the link etc.

In general, if you've visited a site once, it's way easier to find it back with Firefox, and it doesn't require a Google search.

If you think about it, it is very logical that Google doesn't want to move into this direction.

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This is the one reason I stick with Firefox. In Chrome if you search for the name of a YouTube video, with a string you know was in the title of the page, you're very unlikely to get that page as a result. If you're lucky you'll get another page with a link to the page you want in the suggestions list. In Firefox it'll almost always be an instant result, right at the top of the list. It seems strange, but Firefox's search really blows Chrome's out of the water.

I just tried this experiment and I get the same results. Firefox uses Google search on the backend, so I don't see how it could be otherwise.

He means using the auto-complete in your address bar, not actually searching with it.

Auto-completing against what, against Google ala Google Suggest, or you mean auto-completing against your Web History?

Your web history, which is what the address bar searches in Firefox.

In Chrome these two aspects (history and Google search) are blurred, but it's not better for it. I'd say it is a good example of 2 half-assed features not making up for 1 good one.

If you want to search your Web History explicitly, just hit Ctrl-H. This is a case of personal preference. I rarely search my Web History, so I want my Omnibox real estate to be web search. Some people will prefer history ranked above search, others will prefer it the other way. Chrome should give you a preference setting for it.

Firefox has a name for it, it's called the AwesomeBar!

With Vimperator and the command-line input, it's downright uncanny. For me to open, say, Hacker News, I'll type ":o[tab] hacker new[tab]" and a list of completions will appear. Including the main page, my comments thread, etc.

Completions are based on history and bookmarks and includes not just URLs but page titles, bookmark text, and tags, possibly more (I'm still figuring this out).

Plus you lose all the menubars and crap that steal vertical real estate.

vimperator + tree style tab + ghostery + noscript + adblock plus + all-in-one sidebar + autopager + remove it permanently makes for a pretty slick browsing experience.

Chrome is better IMO as an applications interface. Especially, of course, Google's apps: gmail, maps, G+.

I'm leaning strongly toward a bifurcation of browsers. One mode is information aquisition / research, the other is as an AJAX web-app engine. The two needs differ, and my extensively tweeked Firefox config doesn't play particularly well with applications (GMail's keyboard shortcuts, f'rex). But it makes actually, you know, surfing the web, much better.

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