Make Chrome prioritize history results over search suggestions in omnibox

On multiple occassions yesterday, I visited a website that had a word startlocal in it's title. Today, when I entered startlocal in the omnibox, I expected that website as a suggestion. Instead, I got google search term suggestions.

How can I make Chrome attach higher priority to the results from my history, when determining what to show in omnibox?

Solution 1:

As Michaël suggested, you can use chrome's history as a search engine.

1. Click on the customization and options button (aka hamburger menu)
2. Click on the "Settings" menu
3. Scroll down to "Search engine" and click on "Manage Search Engines"
4. Click on "Add" and fill the form:
   • Search engine: "Google Chrome"
   • Keyword: "history"
   • URL with %s in place of query: "chrome://history/?#q=%s"
5. Set that new search engine as default by clicking on the 3 dots on the right of it and selecting "Make default"

Note though that this URL will prevent chrome from searching new things. You will be able to search for things you already looked for, but entering something new will search in your history instead of google's search engine.

This feature is most useful when you want a customized search for other websites: type de Keyword: then hit TAB to search on that engine instead of your default one.

Solution 2:

I found a better solution that keeps the searching capabilities of the Omnibox:

• Open chrome's flag page and search for #omnibox-drive-suggestions or just copy-paste this URL : chrome://flags/#omnibox-drive-suggestions
• Disable the option and restart Chrome.

You should be good to go!