Why doesn't Chrome or Firefox auto-highlight the address bar?

In Windows, when you click on the address bar, it automatically highlights all of the web address so you can enter another one without having to drag across everything. I've noticed that it doesn't do that in Chrome or Firefox (I don't know about other browsers). This is very annoying, especially when the site has a long address that goes past the end of the address bar. How can I fix this?

In firefox, you can change this configuration setting through the "about:config" command.

In the address bar, type in and go to:

about:config

Click on the "I'll be careful, I promise" radio button. And input in the following query into the filter:

browser.urlbar.clickSelectsAll

Double click on the entry to toogle its value between true and false. Select "False" if you want to place the cursor at the insertion point, and select "True" if you want to highlight the entire address bar on a single mouse click.

Here is a link to an article that gives some more useful "about:config" hacks:

28 Coolest Firefox About:Config Tricks

Double click on on the address bar, and it will select the address.

Ctrl-L selects the location bar. After selecting you're going to type anyway so I don't find the process objectionable.

Alt+d highlights the address.