Google Chrome’s Omni Box has a “feature” (read: curse upon humanity) where it automatically fills in the most recent thing you’ve searched for that has all the same characters you have currently typed in.
For example if I search for “Straight Dope Message Board” then later type in the word “straight” and hit enter, it will automatically fill in " Dope Message Board" and search for “Straight Dope Message Board” instead.
In order to search for straight itself I would have to type in “straight” then press backspace or delete to erase all the automatically filled in text. While this is not a terribly exerting task, it does fill me with an incredible amount of rage. (considering it’s a tiny software issue. It’s not actually that much rage. I’m not an angry person I swear. Still it’s annoying)
This is a separate feature from the drop down list of suggestions that is actually useful. (if fixing the auto-complete means losing the drop down menu I will not miss it at all)
I have gone into the chrome settings and unchecked:
“Use a prediction service to help complete searches and URLs typed in the address bar”
and completely erased ALL my browsing history (which I will sorely miss) as i was led to believe that this would solve the problem. It did not.
Now I could get around this problem by bookmarking Google itself and go there to search, or use a different browser entirely, but somehow the idea of losing to a piece of software fills me with even more rage. (No I’m not overly competitive \sarcasm)
Is there any way I can remove this plague upon my sanity? I am willing to go to any length to solve this problem.
(Actually selling my soul is out of the question because it’s currently stapled to the final exam of one of my math courses for extra marks)
(Also I don’t have any money to spend so if it needs cash then it’s out of the question.)
Wrench, “Settings”, under the “Search” header there is an option for “Enable Instant for faster searching (omnibox input may be logged[FONT=Trebuchet MS])”
Uncheck that box if it’s checked. More info.
[/FONT]
Unfortunately that box is currently unchecked and the problem persists. After reading a couple of help forum topics I came under the impression that I might have to employ some less mundane methods in order to fix the problem (what these might be I have no idea, which is why I posted here)
Under settings, there’s an option called “Use a prediction service to help complete searches and URLs typed in the address bar.” I have that unchecked, and yet it still performs this action. From what I’ve read in the various help forums, other users are experiencing the same problem. One of the Google engineers who created the omnibox responded:
“As has been said numerous times, we will not ever provide an option to disable inline autocompletion entirely.”
I’ve read through various Google-help threads, and it looks like Google is trying to make the omnibox auto-complete less sensitive and better predict what people are actually trying to search for. But as far as a broad “on/off switch,” that’s never going to happen.
Personally, I like the way it works now, but I feel your pain, and hope they provide an on/off switch in the future. Claiming it increases code complexity is just ridiculous. EVERY option increases code complexity, but if it causes a major code rewrite just to accommodate this one item, their code is poorly written and needs to be revised anyway.
All they have to do is copy the procedure in the initial Google search screen, which suggests many possible endings as you type, but doesn’t force any of them. I think that’s a good compromise.
Yeah, this is NOT a technical issue in my not very humble opinion. I write web apps for a living. I believe the change to the code should be relatively easy to implement. You should have an option that allows the omnibox to act in the same manner as the normal Google search box.
But, somebody somewhere in the vast complex that is the Googleplex decided that “this shall be done”.
To be clear, this is not Google’s predictive auto-complete that we’re talking about. The predictive auto-complete checks with Google, while you’re still typing, to come up with search suggestions that it thinks are relevant.
What we’re talking about here is the omnibar using your browsing history to offer quick access to sites you visit frequently. That’s such a key feature that I’m not surprised that they don’t bother to offer an option to turn it off.
Do you really want it off? For every time when you have to scroll down and click “straight - Google search” in the list, there are probably 100 times when it saves a lot of typing.
It has become clear that google refuses to fix the problem because they are lazy and incompetent.
[QUOTE=google]
We don’t ignore user feedback.
[/QUOTE]
Apparantly they occasionally blatantly lie too.
[QUOTE=google]
For example, perhaps we can fix bugs in heuristics that cause problems for your corporate users and in the process help tens of millions of other users, as opposed to adding a non-default option that even for people who manage to discover it (rare) forces you to choose between annoying autocompletion and never getting anything at all.
[/QUOTE]
Alright so google thinks I’m not only too stupid to find options, but too stupid to decide whether or not I actually want to use them.
The problem with this is I have the sites I frequently visit bookmarked. I use the omni box to make a Google search (there is no dedicated Google search bar)
or to search for a website I visit rarely. The sites I visit every day are 1 click away, I don’t need to type anything at all.
I would love for the omni box to make a suggestion as to what i’m trying to type in, just make it so I have to press something (right, down, shift-enter i really don’t care) to accept that suggestion, not accept it by default. This feature saves me NO typing. Absolutely none. All it does is cause unnecessary angst and backtracking.
Is there any way to manually disable this feature without using the settings provided with google chrome? If not I will abandon this worthless product and proceed to tell every person I know what a terrible company this is.
In the world of product development, there’s an old truism that the road to complete unusability is paved with features. Google is interested in keeping the product clean and simple, not cluttering it with features that one guy in Peoria has requested.
I have a workaround for you if you’re interested. Set up a Quick Search based on the letter “g.” Then all you have to do, if you want to perform a Google search instead of looking at your browsing history, is to type “g straight…”
As soon as you type the letter ‘g’ and the space bar, it will switch to site search mode.
The reason I’m complaining is because Google already has made their product unusable for me by adding an unwanted feature.
I would love for Google to remove this feature(or at least make it optional) and thus according to that truism make their program less cluttered.
I find it amusing that your recommended workaround would actually take more work than just pressing backspace after I type something I want to search for, or making a Google bookmark and going there to search for things. I would like to make my browsing experience less complicated not more.
Yes I know pressing backspace after i type something to search isn’t hard, but the fact is I shouldn’t have to and have gotten into a lengthy habit of not doing it. Also if I make a mistake while typing in a url, pressing backspace will only delete the suggested portion and leave the mistake in the url as I continue typing, taking me to the wrong site, and then suggesting that site for the rest of eternity (or until I delete my browsing history, which I really hate doing).
Oh please. Not implementing a feature you asked for (or even 10 million people asked for) is not the same as “ignoring feedback.” It is perfectly possible, and not always unreasonable, to take feedback into account and still choose to not do what the feedback requests.
Signed, someone who hates the omnibox [almost] as much as you do…
Alright I admit that post was mainly the product of a large amount of rage at not being able to solve a seemingly simple problem, instead of a careful consideration of concrete facts.
I still believe that is extremely strange to tell your users:
[QUOTE=Google]
As has been said numerous times, we will not ever provide an option to disable inline autocompletion entirely.
[/QUOTE]
and then lock the thread to any further comments.
While it is possible that they are taking into careful consideration all the feedback from people telling them that they have an extreme hatred of this feature, to me it seems more likely that they don’t give a crap and don’t pay any attention to them at all. At least this is the general feeling I am getting from Google.
Um, yes it is. Yeah, technically, they aren’t ignoring it because they obviously did read it. But “ignore” can also mean that you read something but then discard it, when you have a duty to not do so. Google is making Chrome as a tool for others to use. They are not creating it for themselves. Thus they have a duty to listen to the person who they are designing the project for. At least, they do if they expect the users to turn around and use the product.
If we were just giving Google advice, you’re point would have merit. But, we’re not. We’re giving feedback, our expectations for how their product should work. Not implementing a feature when a significant number of people ask for it is ignoring said feedback.
And that attitude of not caring about their users is why I don’t use Chrome. It results in shitty software that can’t do what people actually need.
You mean it doesn’t do what YOU need. It does things just the way I like. That’s not to say that you should use it, but don’t assume that just because it doesn’t suit you, it doesn’t suit anyone else.
This is still a huge problem. I disagree that it’s simply a complaint that it doesn’t work the way I think it should. I’m also not even sure it works the way Google thinks they meant for it to work - as all instructions to disable the feature imply it can be disabled.
The omnibox is a place to type a URL or a Google search query. When I type exactly what I mean to type, there is no reason it would ever be considered helpful for any web browser to replace this input with something other than what I intentionally typed. Is “did you mean to search for” or “showing results for” helpful? Sometimes. Do I care that Google automatically fills in form data based on past input? No. Do I care that Google begins automatically searching for what I type as I type it (instant)? No. That’s fine. Do I care that when I type “Adam” a drop down list appears that includes both “Adam Sandler” and “AdamEve.com”? No. That’s not the real problem the original poster nor I have.
The problem with this “feature” and its persistence is that when I search for “adam” and press Enter, Google shows a page of results for Adam Sandler. I DIDN’T SEARCH FOR ADAM SANDLER. When I type “Adam Sandler” and press Enter, Google shows a page of results for “Adam Sandler movies”. I DIDN’T SEARCH FOR “adam sandler movies”. The omnibox autocomplete isn’t simply suggesting alternatives based on popularity or browsing history - it is literally altering what we type before we even have time to realize it happened.
No one, not me or the original poster or anyone else on the planet, should have to press backspace to remove words from a search query that were never typed in order to prevent searching for something that was not typed!
I had this problem a while back, several updates to Chrome have been released, I have adjusted settings, created a new Gmail user, and deleted sync data repeatedly. This is just plain broken, and it must be a bug - not by design - because I don’t think Google is that absurd.
I found this post again, one of the few (seriously, we may be the only few people on the planet that are having this problem - and I don’t know why) because this happened hours ago:
Someone posted a reference to “Jesus’ parable about Lazarus and Dives” on my blog. I searched in the omnibox for “Lazarus and Dives” and pressed Enter. Google ACTUALLY searched for “LA Fitness”. WHY!
It’s not a bug. Google actually believes that the vast majority of its user base is too incompetent to figure out how to find the option or even care about its existence. They are trying to create a web browser that will automatically try and figure out what it is you are searching for because they think you are too stupid to know how to find it.
This is the conclusion I have come to regarding Google Chrome. Don’t associate yourself with a program that is made under the assumption that you are too stupid to use it.
Personally, after spending 7 or 8 hours getting flash to work in firefox again (why adobe why) i have switched to it, and have never had an issue like this again.
It’s really unfortunate because I found chrome to be a superior browser in almost every way, except I could search for something without becoming immediately enraged.
That doesn’t happen for me with Chrome. I just tried it, and when I type “adam” and hit Enter, the drop-down box lists choices including Adam Sandler, but I would have to scroll down to pick that - just hitting Enter gives me the search results for “Adam”.
Same if I type “adam sandler” - I would have to scroll down to do a search for “adam sandler movies”.
On the other hand, if I type “adam sand”, the auto-complete will fill in the “ler”, and hitting Enter will search for Adam Sandler.
Also, if I start typing the URL of a site I visit often and have navigated that way before, such as “boards”, it will take me to the SDMB page that I go to most often when I use that URL. It might be presumptuous of Chrome to assume that’s what I want to do this time, but I really like it and it saves me lots of keystrokes on average.