Why does Google repaste past search terms now?

Google has changed its behavior for me recently. Now, if I search, then change the search term and search again, my earlier search term gets added to my new one. I have to navigate away from the site and back again to search on a new term without including the previous one.

For example I do a search on “butterfly”.

Then I delete “butterfly” and put “moth” in the search field and search again.

The result I get says it is for “butterfly moth”, and appears to be.

Could it be me? Or is this now expected behavior? My co-workers looking over my shoulder are baffled.

Maybe this?

It doesn’t behave that way for me, but I have JavaScript disabled for google.com.

Sounds to me like your web browser’s auto-complete is malfunctioning.

And this is one reason why I don’t use Google Search. I don’t like computers trying to second-guess me and acting like they’re smarter than me.