Haha, I just switched from Chrome to Firefox because I hate how Chrome prioritizes Google Search over my previous history. It's idiotic.
Here, let me show you a clear example.
http://i.imgur.com/uNsh7Yv.png
Firefox clearly has the superior bar.
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I've personally internalized the downdown for going to things I've gone to before.
However, I do brand new searches constantly. Often 20+ a day, that often look similar to older searches, but aren't quite.
Now, whether I've developed that behavior because of Chrome, or because it works well for me, is a question for itself.
Also, since I'm here- anyone get frequent fuckups lately in the Chrome omnibar, not searching what you put in, to instead search something you HAVE searched before?
For example, before, I've searched "javascript array"
But this time, I am wanting to search "javascript string concatenation". I type that into Chrome, hit enter...
...up pops the search results for "javascript array". It started about a month ago, and is really annoying.
> It started about a month ago, and is really annoying.
Yes, I have been encountering the same behavior. It is infuriating because it's impossible to tell when this is going to happen. This is separate from pulling up different searches I've used before, this bug seems to be something like "ignore what you type completely".
(this is on a Mac)
In Firefox, the hotkey "cmd-K" will put focus into the search bar at the top.
In Chrome they don't have a keybind set to this by default (though on Windows they seem to). But if you open mac System Preferences, go to Keyboard, then Keyboard Shortcuts, and add an Application Shortcut for Chrome, you set the menu item name to "Search the Web..." and the keybind to whatever you want (I used "cmd-K").
So that way regardless if I'm in Firefox or chrome, pressing cmd-K will put me in a place I can search.
also, cmd-l (go to the awesomebar) and start with a ? to always search.
you can also have different engines
?cat
i have one for ddg so
ddg cat
I've been encountering this, I thought I was just losing my small collection of marbles!
I have a new dev laptop in the mail, perhaps Firefox will get installed before chrome...
Is it associated with Google Instant failing?
I've noticed frequently Google Instant will fail half way through searching, and it will ignore everything I typed and just go with what Instant guessed before it crapped out.
If Instant is prioritizing your previous search, it may be linked.
This definitely could be what it is.
All the time. I'm not sure how to not activate auto-completion sometimes.
But this isn't auto-completion, this is just plain ignoring what I typed.
Also, putting "* " in the awesomebar before typing searches your search string limits the results to bookmarks. Here is a list of these prefixes:
Add ^ to search for matches in your browsing history.
Add * to search for matches in your bookmarks.
Add + to search for matches in pages you've tagged.
Add % to search for matches in your currently open tabs.
Add ~ to search for matches in pages you've typed.
Add # to search for matches in page titles.
Add @ to search for matches in web addresses (URLs).
You can deactive this in chrome://settings/. I did it after your post. I find it also annoying.
I am surprised not a lot of people at HN do this. Disabling predictive service is one of the first things I do after installing chrome on a new machine. Something about sending every keystroke made on the omnibar to Google makes me feel uneasy, it could also be the paranoid in me talking.
I would still like the search results to show up though. Just prioritized lower than my history.
What setting do you change?
[] Use a prediction service to help complete searches and URLs typed in the address bar
Maybe that one.
So that's why every time I start typing a reddit url, Chrome suggests I visit http://www.reddit.com/r/gone wild (sic, with the space in there).
There are a number of reasons why they really need to rethink this, default it off, or do some better filtering. Didn't impact me personally beyond the confusion but I could imagine that URL and maybe some others coming up in what appears to be someone's unique search or browsing history raising some interesting questions at work and/or at home for some users.
I like Safari's solution best.
Hit space and you get recent searches.
Start typing and you get suggestions.
You can have a pretty close approximation on chrome with this plugin (fauxbar):
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/fauxbar/hibkhcnpka...
It searches your history and bookmarks too, which is what the awesome bar does.
Aurelio's used to have amazing pizza before the original owners sold it and it became a franchise. Don't waste your money, there's plenty of better options.
Also, I agree with you regarding Chrome's Google search priorities.
Supposedly the one in Homewood, not the origional location, but the origional town and ovens is still good. I enjoy it at least, but I grew up on it.
I appreciate this feature on mobile as it can help save me some more time-consuming taps, but I don't use it on Chrome since I can type faster than I can browse through the results it's guessing at.
yeah and you can get chrome behavior in ff in the search bar, too. well except for the bug of course. The ff search bar does search for what you typed, not what you typed last. (and does shows instant results, too) best of both worlds.
I disagree. I think most people use the bar for searches, not their bookmarks.
Sure, but I don't really need the bar's help to type my search term. I do need its help to search my history/bookmarks.
Your comparison would be stronger if you searched for the same string in both.
If anything, I've given Chrome a bigger crutch by giving it more letters to work with. And it's still worse than FF. ;)
Perhaps so, but it still seems unscientific. I even left out that an even better test would be if you had identical history in both browsers (which I know would be inconvenient to set up). I honestly do not understand why I am being downvoted.