Google Preps Instant Search For Chrome 8

An anonymous reader writes "Google is apparently playing with a nifty integration of instant search inside of its Chrome browser. Typing in the URL bar will automatically bring up a search page, while URLs apparently can be completed much faster as well. It seems as if Google isn't running out of ideas for its browser anytime soon."

So they want our complete URL history?

[wal9001]

Sounds like a not too subtle excuse to send every URL you type back to your targeted advertising file at Google. Were there a separate search box, I'd be less cynical, but one has to wonder if this was always their vision for what the browser bar should do.

Features

[Reality Master 101]

I love Chrome, and don't miss Firefox at all (and especially don't miss my system being brought to its knees by the constant memory leaks that seemingly can't be fixed), but I wish they would focus less on whiz-bang features, and focus more on filling in the gaps in the core features. Things like "Print Preview" and "Properties" when you right-click an image come to mind.

Nifty is a relative term...

[feidaykin]

I suppose it is "nifty" for folks that actually like the instant search feature, but I've been happily avoiding it by doing my searches through the URL bar in Chrome. Guess they'll take that option away, too? Oh well, I'm not going to nerd-rage about it like some of the posts I've seen on Slashdot. It's just a minor annoyance to me but I'll likely still use Chrome to browse and Google to search. I really like Chrome, mainly because it's one of the few browsers that's lightning fast when I have lots of tabs with Flash heavy content open. That's probably only because of my aging hardware, and it's not like Firefox is really sluggish on my system, just noticeably slower.

Plus Chrome has other neat features, like when I type the URL of a site I have searched before, you can search that site again by pressing tab, so I don't need to have a bunch of different search boxes for different sites like I do in Firefox. Anyway, I guess I'll reserve my judgement until it's actually implemented, maybe they'll do it in a way that isn't too irksome or distracting.

Works on passwords too!

[rwa2]

Hey! Did you know if you type in your root password into the search bar, it can list your computer in the search results?

It works on Slashdot too... see, here's mine: ********

/ accidentally his password in the google search bar the other day
// it's different now

Search bar as temporary area

[sea4ever]

I often use the search bar at the top as a temporary writing area for transient things, like to craft an URL which I would then paste into something else, or to write out an equation that I happen to see (Sometimes I use the browser to review notes)
It wouldn't be very fun if the page I was looking at suddenly vanished to be replaced by a search page, just because I was trying to crystallize my thoughts for a second. Of course I really should be using a separate editor for transient notes but it seems so convenient this way..

Missing feature

[CODiNE]

Okay, my Chrome pet peeve here.

Let's say you open a bunch of background tabs while reading a page. One of the tabs doesn't load for whatever reason, when it times out, instead of putting the attempted URL in the address bar it leaves some kind of about:blank internal page that tells you what happened. That's great, thanks for the info, now click refresh. Nope, the page is gone forever. Go back to the first page and hunt through the links comparing them against the loaded tabs and hopefully you find the one you wanted.

Re:Awesome Bar?

[Joe Snipe]

I've got a cheat for you: Use the search engine list to make shortcuts! I created a Slashdot entry with the URL being slashdot.org. then I gave it the keyword "sd". Now I just hit sd and enter and Slashdot is pulled up immediately! You could use single letters if you prefer, but I have multiple shortcuts (GoogleMail, HotMail, etc) so its easier to use two letters for me.

Re:So they want our complete URL history?

[MushMouth]

Holy smokes, you are right. Where is EPIC and the EFF in all of this? This is far more insidious than I realized. Right now the only solution that I know of is to shut off javascript for www.google.com or use a menubar search in a non-chrome browser (with suggestions off)