How to Remove the Latest Google Searches from the Google Chrome Address Bar

[The AchieVer]

How to Remove the Latest Google Searches from the Google Chrome Address Bar 

 

Google Chrome is currently the world’s number one browser on both desktop and mobile, so every little issue can impact millions of users regardless of platform.

 

One of the latest annoyances experienced on the desktop isn’t necessarily a bug itself, but more of a behavior that Google thought would be useful, but which ends up being rather frustrating.

In the most recent Google Chrome (this tutorial is based on Chrome 74, so it exists in the latest stable version as well) the search giant changed the behavior of the address bar to also include the most recent searches for faster browser.

While the Omnibox is something that’s very often super-useful, quickly loading a specific website is occasionally impossible because of this updated system that includes the latest searches.

As detailed in this reddit thread, the simplest example comes down to typing the letter “R” to have Chrome auto-complete the link to reddit.com and load the website.

But if you previously searched for something that starts with the same letter, such as “red,” for instance, Google overwrites your original settings, so typing “R” and pressing enter conducts a search for this keyword instead of pointing you to reddit.

 

 

 

While at some level this makes sense because you can always head over to the last keyword you searched for, it should come with a toggle to let users disable this and stick with the URL suggestions that come in so handy.

Fortunately, Google allows you to actually enable this setting, only that you must do it from the advanced flags configuration screen, as there’s no dedicated option to do the whole thing right now from Chrome’s UI.

The first thing you need to do is launch the flags screen by typing the following command in the Google Chrome address bar:

chrome://flags

Next, you need to search for the next flag using the search box at the top:

Omnibox Google Drive Document suggestions

If you want to find the flag faster, you can just copy the code below and paste it in the address bar of Google Chrome:

chrome://flags/#omnibox-drive-suggestions

The description of the flag explains its purpose:

“Display suggestions for Google Drive documents in the omnibox when Google is the default search engine. – Mac, Windows, Linux, Chrome OS”

If you haven’t changed the settings of this flag, it should be set to Default, which means it’s currently enabled in Google Chrome browser. So if you want to disable the suggestions from showing up in the address bar, simply click the drop-down menu next to it and then select the Disabled option.

You’re going to need to reboot Google Chrome, after which you can try out the new behavior in the address bar.

If you want to return to the original configuration at a later time, it’s enough to just follow the aforementioned steps once again, only that this time you must switch the flag to either Default or Enabled.

At the time of writing this article, it’s not yet known if Google wants to make the whole thing more straightforward by adding a dedicated option in a future Chrome update. However, such a setting is missing from the Canary version of the browser, which means that the company isn’t yet planning to develop it. It could end up being added to Chrome, however, depending on the feedback Google receives.

The next stable version of Google Chrome is version 75, and according to the official schedule, it’s projected to go live for all users on June 4.

 

 

 

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