4 ms·

Typing URLs into the search bar of Google is very common. I see it all the time. If google is your default new tab page there's really nothing wrong with it. On

Typing URLs into the search bar of Google is very common. I see it all the time. If google is your default new tab page there's really nothing wrong with it. One extra click maybe.

bambax 10y ago
You get a search result page instead of going directly to the site (that's how I noticed they were doing it).
- ericd 10y ago
  It does have the nice feature of spell checking for you :-) It's a good bit safer to search for your bank site, for example, since there're large incentives for phishing sites to sit on common misspellings of bank domains.
  - Retric 10y ago
    I actually do this just for financial sites I don't have bookmarked. It's faster if I miss type and vastly safer.
  - dublinben 10y ago
    There are conflicting incentives for search engines (Yahoo seems much worse than Google for this) to allow paid results for phishing sites above the real result. I can often tell exactly which phishing site a user is getting directed to instead of the real domain that they want.
Freak_NL 10y ago
It does imply that the user is not (sufficiently) aware of the difference between a browser and a for-profit search engine. It's a type of behaviour that makes people dependent on a service where no dependency is needed. Also, how many of these users are both aware that they are sharing large parts of their browsing behaviour with Google and are okay with that?
- vilhelm_s 10y ago
  Well, most browsers are for-profit too. Typing an address into Chrome's address bar will still send it to Google so they can give suggestions back, I think. (E.g., if I type "http://www.abc" http://www.abc" into the bar, it suggests an autocomplete to "www.abcnews.com", which I have never visited. Doing the same in a 'Private Browsing' window turns off this autocomplete.) I'm not convinced that distinguishing between address bar and search field is either a necessary of a sufficient condition for understanding Internet privacy.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]

Typing URLs into the search bar of Google is very common. I see it all the time. If google is your default new tab page there's really nothing wrong with it. One extra click maybe.

bambax 10y ago

You get a search result page instead of going directly to the site (that's how I noticed they were doing it).

ericd 10y ago
It does have the nice feature of spell checking for you :-) It's a good bit safer to search for your bank site, for example, since there're large incentives for phishing sites to sit on common misspellings of bank domains.
- Retric 10y ago
  I actually do this just for financial sites I don't have bookmarked. It's faster if I miss type and vastly safer.
- dublinben 10y ago
  There are conflicting incentives for search engines (Yahoo seems much worse than Google for this) to allow paid results for phishing sites above the real result. I can often tell exactly which phishing site a user is getting directed to instead of the real domain that they want.

Freak_NL 10y ago

It does imply that the user is not (sufficiently) aware of the difference between a browser and a for-profit search engine. It's a type of behaviour that makes people dependent on a service where no dependency is needed. Also, how many of these users are both aware that they are sharing large parts of their browsing behaviour with Google and are okay with that?

vilhelm_s 10y ago
Well, most browsers are for-profit too. Typing an address into Chrome's address bar will still send it to Google so they can give suggestions back, I think. (E.g., if I type "http://www.abc" http://www.abc" into the bar, it suggests an autocomplete to "www.abcnews.com", which I have never visited. Doing the same in a 'Private Browsing' window turns off this autocomplete.) I'm not convinced that distinguishing between address bar and search field is either a necessary of a sufficient condition for understanding Internet privacy.
deleted 10y ago
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