Google Chrome - How to Turn off the Omnibox/Search box

I would like to turn off recommendations in my omnibox/searchbox. Specifically from history (e.g. disabling typing f to automatically bring up facebook.com).

I find the suggestions distract me often and I don't really need to get to facebook.com 2 seconds faster.

Thariq Shihipar

Posted 2016-01-18T02:43:17.030

Reputation: 191

Answers

It is possible to permanently turn off predictions from google and the web, however predictions from your browsing history can't be turned off. You can temporarily stop them from appearing by deleting your browsing history or using incognito mode (CTRL+SHIFT+N).

To turn off web predictions:

Click the Chrome menu
Click Settings > Show advanced settings.
In the "Privacy" section, uncheck "Use a prediction service to help complete searches and URLs typed in the address bar."

You can also try installing the "No History" extension in chrome which will prevent chrome from collecting any history and thereby stopping the predictions, however the downside is you wont be able to view your browsing history at all.

protango

Posted 2016-01-18T02:43:17.030

Reputation: 111

1Running Version 74.0.3729.131 (Official Build) (64-bit). That no longer works. There is no "Privacy" section under "advanced settings". There is a "Privacy and Security" section, but it does not have that "Use a prediction service.." option. I want to be able to put in a URL and have it go there. If i wanted to search, I would put the search string into a search field, not the address bar. I think the developers are doing this on purpose, though I don't understand why – Duncan – 2019-05-14T19:00:16.873

Sadly google is treating even "power users" as babies and locking down their features, better is to move to another browser like dissenter or brave. At the very least change the search engine to duckduckgo – nodws – 2019-06-05T15:21:47.300

A partial solution for Version 73.0+ (no search suggestions but still get url history) is to change the default search engine, since the omnibox prediction service is no longer toggleable from the "Privacy" settings panel.

Just go to the "Search Engines" panel, and change the default engine to your prefered provider chrome://settings/searchEngines

If you wish to keep google but without "search suggestions" you may use this: {google:baseURL}search?q=%s&hl=en

This will suggest from your URL history instead of predicting a search with "useful" images, products, video or news snippets.

nodws

Posted 2016-01-18T02:43:17.030

Reputation: 101