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I believe Chrome's auto-complete has a lot to do with how many times I check HN and other websites. It's automatic... I open a new tab and three key strokes and

by goshx 8y ago

I believe Chrome's auto-complete has a lot to do with how many times I check HN and other websites. It's automatic... I open a new tab and three key strokes and I'm here. Does anyone know of an existing way to disable auto-complete just for some websites? I still need it for work related stuff, but I bet that if I had to type everything all the time it would be easier to prevent constant checks.

distortedsignal 8y ago
It would require discipline, but you could only read HN in incognito/private mode. Delete your history for a fresh start. I do this on my phone - it's not as helpful as I thought it would be.
- wolco 8y ago
  Don't delete your entire history. When the site appears during autocomplete simply press the [delete /[del] key.
r00fus 8y ago
Does Chrome auto-complete rely on history? If so, periodically scripting a purge on the history file [1] may selectively gimp your autocomplete as required. Downside, you lose your history - won't find that great tip/info you found but didn't bother to bookmark. Personally, I like tools that prevent me from resolving HN/reddit/etc during "vulnerable" (afternoon) hours. [1] https://superuser.com/questions/480646/how-can-i-delete-all-web-history-that-matches-a-specific-query-in-google-chrome https://superuser.com/questions/480646/how-can-i-delete-all-...
m_ke 8y ago
I just disabled it for everything, also there's a way to delete specific autocomplete suggestions from the results.
exikyut 8y ago
What? Three keystrokes?! You say you open a new tab and then three keystrokes you're there. Well, My _four_ keystrokes include opening the new tab. Depress CTRL; T; release CTRL; N; Return. Or I could say it's three "keyboard phrases" by saying it's ^T N Return, but that feels like cheating. TL;DR, "n" fully autocompletes to HN. At one point adding a "/" at the end of the URL (autocomplete just filled in the domain with no trailing "/") would complete to "/best", but I seem to have to do "/b" now.
exikyut 8y ago
Not really, no. The heuristic is very carefully designed to minimize mistakes and glitches. Practically guaranteed no configuration bits would be added in that area since the code has to work for a few hundred million people hundreds to thousands of times a day (yeah...). However, you can delete autocomplete entries by highlighting them with arrow keys and then using Shift+Delete. (Contrary to intuition, this will not put them in your clipboard.) I'm not sure where this started but I remember using it in Firefox about 10 years ago as well.
smichel17 8y ago
On Firefox, I disable autocompletion from browser history, but keep it enabled for bookmarks. So much easier to avoid unwanted side-tracks.
- taneq 8y ago
  But Firefox's 'awesome bar' autocomplete is how I find things in my history. "I went to a web page sometime in... February? Or November? It was something about widgets... types in 'wid' Oh there it is."
  - zaarn 8y ago
    Firefox is smart enough by now to manage it in almost 1 keystroke on average. Even more fun, when I type "you", Firefox not only suggests youtube but also the github page for a small script that extracts the rss feed link from youtube channels and playlists. I use that maybe once every few months. It's amazing really.
    - reitanqild 8y ago
      Firefox awesome bar took a lot of (unfair IMO) criticism back a few years back. I have the same experience as you guys, and on one occasion I think it saved me days of work by helping me recover a certain almost ungooglable resource I knew I had seen at some point.

by goshx 8y ago

distortedsignal 8y ago

It would require discipline, but you could only read HN in incognito/private mode. Delete your history for a fresh start. I do this on my phone - it's not as helpful as I thought it would be.

wolco 8y ago
Don't delete your entire history. When the site appears during autocomplete simply press the [delete /[del] key.

r00fus 8y ago

Does Chrome auto-complete rely on history? If so, periodically scripting a purge on the history file [1] may selectively gimp your autocomplete as required. Downside, you lose your history - won't find that great tip/info you found but didn't bother to bookmark. Personally, I like tools that prevent me from resolving HN/reddit/etc during "vulnerable" (afternoon) hours. [1] https://superuser.com/questions/480646/how-can-i-delete-all-web-history-that-matches-a-specific-query-in-google-chrome https://superuser.com/questions/480646/how-can-i-delete-all-...

m_ke 8y ago

I just disabled it for everything, also there's a way to delete specific autocomplete suggestions from the results.

exikyut 8y ago

What? Three keystrokes?! You say you open a new tab and then three keystrokes you're there. Well, My _four_ keystrokes include opening the new tab. Depress CTRL; T; release CTRL; N; Return. Or I could say it's three "keyboard phrases" by saying it's ^T N Return, but that feels like cheating. TL;DR, "n" fully autocompletes to HN. At one point adding a "/" at the end of the URL (autocomplete just filled in the domain with no trailing "/") would complete to "/best", but I seem to have to do "/b" now.

exikyut 8y ago

Not really, no. The heuristic is very carefully designed to minimize mistakes and glitches. Practically guaranteed no configuration bits would be added in that area since the code has to work for a few hundred million people hundreds to thousands of times a day (yeah...). However, you can delete autocomplete entries by highlighting them with arrow keys and then using Shift+Delete. (Contrary to intuition, this will not put them in your clipboard.) I'm not sure where this started but I remember using it in Firefox about 10 years ago as well.

smichel17 8y ago

On Firefox, I disable autocompletion from browser history, but keep it enabled for bookmarks. So much easier to avoid unwanted side-tracks.

taneq 8y ago
But Firefox's 'awesome bar' autocomplete is how I find things in my history. "I went to a web page sometime in... February? Or November? It was something about widgets... types in 'wid' Oh there it is."
- zaarn 8y ago
  Firefox is smart enough by now to manage it in almost 1 keystroke on average. Even more fun, when I type "you", Firefox not only suggests youtube but also the github page for a small script that extracts the rss feed link from youtube channels and playlists. I use that maybe once every few months. It's amazing really.
  - reitanqild 8y ago
    Firefox awesome bar took a lot of (unfair IMO) criticism back a few years back. I have the same experience as you guys, and on one occasion I think it saved me days of work by helping me recover a certain almost ungooglable resource I knew I had seen at some point.