How can I disable Chrome's address bar search autocomplete?

Chrome's autocomplete for searches is often very annoying and intrusive because it is opt-out. It autocompletes by default and you have to press Backspace to dismiss it. Google search suggestions are welcome but sometimes I just want to type what I want.

There's an option for "Use a prediction service to help complete searches and URLs typed in the address bar" but this disables suggestions also. Is there any way to disable autocomplete without losing suggestions?

Solution 1:

It can never be fully disabled, unfortunately. You can clear your browser history (including all new history being cleared on session exit every time) and follow the below steps to get close to the desired results.

In current versions:

4. From the Privacy and security section, click Sync and Google services
5. Disable Autocomplete searches and URLs

In older versions of Chrome:

1. Go to the Chrome menu on the browser toolbar
2. Click Settings
3. Click Show advanced settings (on the bottom)
4. In the Privacy section, deselect the "Use a prediction service to help complete searches and URLs typed in the address bar" checkbox

Keep in mind that the address bar shows matches from your browsing history, in addition to predictions. If you don't want to see matches from your browsing history, you must clear that as well.

Beyond that there is nothing more you can do. It is either all or nothing. You cannot modify the behavior of how you dismiss suggestions. Suggestions and autocomplete are the same service.

Solution 2:

For me there are two different things to do. The first one has been already marked as the correct answer. In brief:

• Go to Chrome preferences - Advanced options - Disable: Use a prediction service to help complete searches and URLs typed in the address bar

However I still see, in addition to sites saved as bookmarks, URLs that I frequently visit. So the second thing to do to remove those entries is to:

• When the unwanted URL appear, type Shift+Del (Windows) or Shift+Function+Delete (Mac) (Full answer here). I guess you can also clear all history cache, if you prefer!

Solution 3:

My biggest complaint is that I type a hostname into the address bar (just a host name, not and FQDN) and Google Chrome goes off and searches for the hostname instead of going to it. And now it is surrounded by a bunch of URL so I hate to type it again!! Grrr!!!!

I found something that seems to completely disable searches in the address bar in Google Chrome.

Settings

• Search engine
  • Manage search engines
    • Other search engines
      • Click Add
        • Search Engine - NONE
        • Keyword
          • anything you won't accidentally type in the address bar
          • P1Sn1Q4XhBViV2QoEQaggtcGxUZ3EYvg
        • URL with %s in place of query
          • Just %s, nothing else
          • %s
        • Click Add
    • Other search engines
      • NONE
        • Click the vertical ellipsis ⋮
          • Select - Make default

Now, when you want to search in the address bar, you can, by typing the "Keyword" for the search you want and then your search terms.

BUT :-) just typing into the google.com web page search will Not take you to the address bar!