How to disable search in the Google Chrome address bar?

20

5

Possible Duplicate:
Force Chrome to open URLs as URLs, instead of searching

I'm surprised that I haven't found this question on superuser. Forgive me if it's a duplicate, but how do you disable the search functionality in Google Chrome's address bar?

I want it to be just a straight up address bar. I know the address where I want to go. I don't want to have to click the "did you mean to go to" link all the time when Chrome thinks the word I typed is more likely to be a search term than a server. You'd think putting the http:// in front would help, but I already do this by default anyway and no dice. =/

Thanks!

Suncho

Posted 2011-11-10T06:27:46.913

Reputation: 203

Question was closed 2011-11-17T04:44:30.153

Answers

17

You can't disable the search feature of the Omnibox.

You can disable instant search by clicking the wrench > options > basic and unchecking "enable instant."

A possible work around is to create a custom search engine for chrome. Right click in the Omnibox (search bar) and choose Edit search engines. You can create a blank search engine that will always fail by putting "no" "null" and "http://%s" in the Name, Keyword, and URL fields respectively.

If you're trying to point this to a local host, you could potentially use the URL field for this, though I have not tried this, and cannot confirm.

xdumaine

Posted 2011-11-10T06:27:46.913

Reputation: 2 281

1Okay. Is there a way to make Chrome aware of the servers I have set up in my hosts file? – Suncho – 2011-11-10T06:37:16.980

1You'll have to elaborate on what you want to do. I've edited my answer to provide some more details and a possible work around. – xdumaine – 2011-11-10T06:40:39.003

2Wow excellent. Works perfectly. Note that %s (without the http:// prefix) in the URL field works better for me because I might be visiting URLs using different protocols. – Suncho – 2011-11-10T08:12:35.630

Nice, that worked just fine. I created a dummy custom search engine (Null   Null   null://%s) and set it as the default. Now typing a basic string does nothing. (It would have been easier, cleaner, and more versatile if they had not removed the ability to create engines without %s or containing JavaScript. ಠ_ಠ) – Synetech – 2013-08-21T02:22:33.743

Asked: 2011-11-10T06:27:46.913

Viewed: 52 005 times

Active: 2011-11-10T06:39:06.777