5 ms·

I can't speak for the average user, but I would argue that until Chrome gets the ability to add a separate search bar, it will never be on par with Firefox. Al

I can't speak for the average user, but I would argue that until Chrome gets the ability to add a separate search bar, it will never be on par with Firefox. Albeit, Chrome is much faster than Firefox, but without that search bar I just can't use it fluidly.

FreakLegion 15y ago
If you tend to use a lot of tabs (I have anywhere from 50 to 150 open at any given time), Chrome certainly isn't faster than Firefox (or Opera).
- oblique63 15y ago
  Is it really that noticeably faster? Cause I always have like about ~100 tabs open at a time too, but I've been using chrome exclusively for so long, that I don't even install firefox anymore. I would definitely be interested in giving it another shot if it handles multiple tabs better though.
- politician 15y ago
  Chrome also has abysmal support for managing those 50-100 tabs.
callumjones 15y ago
Chrome is never going to get a dedicated search bar, the address bar in Chrome is designed to get you where you need to go. If you know the direct url that's awesome; but if you don't that's no problem as a Google search will take you where you need to go. I feel this is much better than the Safari/Firefox way of handling things, where you essentially switch between two modes (usually by tabing) of either trying to find something or trying to hit a direct URL. Users don't want to operate in modes, they just want to find things.
- kajecounterhack 15y ago
  I actually disable the google bar in my Firefox because the awesomebar takes care of whatever I need. It's pretty much the same as google's search bar. I'm not sure why anyone feels the need to use the separate bar.
  - Macha 15y ago
    The reason there are two seperate bars is the privacy implication of having autocomplete from a search engine for every url you type in. If I want to go to example.com, that'll get sent to Google for autocomplete if I type it on the Chrome address bar or the Firefox search bar. Depending on what example.com is, I may not want Google knowing I went there. On the other hand, if I type it on the Firefox address bar, it doesn't get sent for search autocomplete (just history, bookmarks etc.), so Google doesn't know which site I'm going to. That's the official purpose of having two bars anyway, but I can't find the article where I remember this being stated.
    - tonfa 15y ago
      You can disable network completion in Preferences> Under the hood > Privacy
      - drgath 15y ago
        Yes, but then you miss out on auto-completion for searches. Hence, why I prefer the separate bars. If I know the URL or title of the page (for FF's Awesomebar), cmd+L (URL bar). If I want to search, cmd+K (search box). It's all personal preference, and there's no universally correct answer.
jlarocco 15y ago
I'm really surprised this is an issue for people. For as long as I can remember, the first thing I've done when installing a new browser is remove the search bar and all of the toolbar buttons. Searching from the address bar is no more or less convenient than from the dedicated search field, and all of the other actions can be done faster using keyboard shortcuts or mouse gestures or, in my case, extra mouse buttons. What's the appeal of having a separate search bar taking up space?
- vishesh 15y ago
  I have added several other search for which the search bar is quite handy. But again its just upto person to person. Most of the times "I'm feeling Lucky" works however.
  - jlarocco 15y ago
    You probably know about this, or maybe this isn't in Firefox, but most of the other browsers use 'keyword' searches from the address bar, which give access to every search engine you have configured. "g whatever" - Google "whatever" "w whatever" - Wikipedia search for "whatever" "a whatever" - Amazon search for "whatever" ... New shortcuts can be added and the existing ones can be changed. For example, when I type "g whatever", it searches Duck Duck Go.
    - icco 15y ago
      This exists in both Chrome and Firefox. I've used it for years and loved it.
      - blasdel 15y ago
        and in Chrome it's populated completely automatically based on your habits! It identifies site search fields in the pages you visit, and associates them with the domain itself and whatever terms you use to get to that domain. In Firefox it has to be manually configured for each site, with a user-specified prefix. When the fuck is a normal user going to do that?
redthrowaway 15y ago
The omnibox is a huge improvement over the traditional model. Rather than dismiss your opinion, I'd like to ask what you think is superior about the separate boxes.
- bzbarsky 15y ago
  The fact that it doesn't send everything you type in your URL bar to Google.
baddox 15y ago
That's funny, I couldn't stand to use Firefox (which I only do rarely for development) until I found out about a plugin that combines the address and search bar.
- malnourish 15y ago
  My favorite feature in Firefox (aside from deeper extensions) is keyword searching. I can right-click a search field, bookmark it with a simple title e.g. wiki, g, i, imdb and then search from the address bar by typing the keyword and then the query. I like this method because it is reliable and doesn't change the look of the address bar. I use Chrome about 25% of the time on Windows and the thing with searching different sites from a blank tab is that it is unreliable for me.
  - jaylevitt 15y ago
    Preferences > Manage Search Engines... will do the same thing in Chrome (though it doesn't have the wonderful right-click-to-add ability; you have to enter the URL yourself).
    - tonfa 15y ago
      They get added automatically as soon as you use a search box, just change the keyword to something shorter than the domain name (which is the default keyword).
    - RobAtticus 15y ago
      Actually, Chrome does have the right-click to add ability. At least Chrome 17 (dev channel) does.
  - baddox 15y ago
    I used to do this in Firefox (before Chrome came out), and I thought it was great. Then, I switched to Chrome (simply because it was significantly snappier) and quickly realized that just Googling everything directly from the Chrome bar was almost always as good as all those specific shortcuts I had setup in Firefox.
yzhengyu 15y ago
I respectfully disagree. I actually stopped using Firefox because my experience with Chrome's Omnibar convinced me to switch full time. With how the Omnibar works, I no longer need to type in a full URL. It either searched for the site I wanted via Google, via my favourites or via my history and it would get it right almost 100% of the time.
sunir 15y ago
The average user has spoken. They voted with their feet. Chrome surpasses Firefox. http://m.zdnet.com/blog/btl/statcounter-chrome-overtakes-firefox-globally/64429 http://m.zdnet.com/blog/btl/statcounter-chrome-overtakes-fir...
- bzbarsky 15y ago
  > They voted with their feet Or had Chrome set up as their default browser without their consent when they installed Skype and don't know how to change to a different browser. Hard to tell, obviously.
  - j_baker 15y ago
    It's more likely that the vast majority of Chrome users are upgraded to the latest version automatically while IE users are fragmented across multiple versions.
    - bzbarsky 15y ago
      Oh, that's certainly true, but I'm talking about overall install base, not per-version install base. I'd love to see a credible estimate of how much of Chrome's install base is due to the "install it and make it default" bundling deals.
spooneybarger 15y ago
I'd like to be able to get rid of the search bar in firefox et al and just have a single point of entry like chrome.

FreakLegion 15y ago

If you tend to use a lot of tabs (I have anywhere from 50 to 150 open at any given time), Chrome certainly isn't faster than Firefox (or Opera).

oblique63 15y ago
Is it really that noticeably faster? Cause I always have like about ~100 tabs open at a time too, but I've been using chrome exclusively for so long, that I don't even install firefox anymore. I would definitely be interested in giving it another shot if it handles multiple tabs better though.
politician 15y ago
Chrome also has abysmal support for managing those 50-100 tabs.

callumjones 15y ago

Chrome is never going to get a dedicated search bar, the address bar in Chrome is designed to get you where you need to go. If you know the direct url that's awesome; but if you don't that's no problem as a Google search will take you where you need to go. I feel this is much better than the Safari/Firefox way of handling things, where you essentially switch between two modes (usually by tabing) of either trying to find something or trying to hit a direct URL. Users don't want to operate in modes, they just want to find things.

kajecounterhack 15y ago
I actually disable the google bar in my Firefox because the awesomebar takes care of whatever I need. It's pretty much the same as google's search bar. I'm not sure why anyone feels the need to use the separate bar.
- Macha 15y ago
  The reason there are two seperate bars is the privacy implication of having autocomplete from a search engine for every url you type in. If I want to go to example.com, that'll get sent to Google for autocomplete if I type it on the Chrome address bar or the Firefox search bar. Depending on what example.com is, I may not want Google knowing I went there. On the other hand, if I type it on the Firefox address bar, it doesn't get sent for search autocomplete (just history, bookmarks etc.), so Google doesn't know which site I'm going to. That's the official purpose of having two bars anyway, but I can't find the article where I remember this being stated.
  - tonfa 15y ago
    You can disable network completion in Preferences> Under the hood > Privacy
    - drgath 15y ago
      Yes, but then you miss out on auto-completion for searches. Hence, why I prefer the separate bars. If I know the URL or title of the page (for FF's Awesomebar), cmd+L (URL bar). If I want to search, cmd+K (search box). It's all personal preference, and there's no universally correct answer.

jlarocco 15y ago

I'm really surprised this is an issue for people. For as long as I can remember, the first thing I've done when installing a new browser is remove the search bar and all of the toolbar buttons. Searching from the address bar is no more or less convenient than from the dedicated search field, and all of the other actions can be done faster using keyboard shortcuts or mouse gestures or, in my case, extra mouse buttons. What's the appeal of having a separate search bar taking up space?

vishesh 15y ago
I have added several other search for which the search bar is quite handy. But again its just upto person to person. Most of the times "I'm feeling Lucky" works however.
- jlarocco 15y ago
  You probably know about this, or maybe this isn't in Firefox, but most of the other browsers use 'keyword' searches from the address bar, which give access to every search engine you have configured. "g whatever" - Google "whatever" "w whatever" - Wikipedia search for "whatever" "a whatever" - Amazon search for "whatever" ... New shortcuts can be added and the existing ones can be changed. For example, when I type "g whatever", it searches Duck Duck Go.
  - icco 15y ago
    This exists in both Chrome and Firefox. I've used it for years and loved it.
    - blasdel 15y ago
      and in Chrome it's populated completely automatically based on your habits! It identifies site search fields in the pages you visit, and associates them with the domain itself and whatever terms you use to get to that domain. In Firefox it has to be manually configured for each site, with a user-specified prefix. When the fuck is a normal user going to do that?

redthrowaway 15y ago

The omnibox is a huge improvement over the traditional model. Rather than dismiss your opinion, I'd like to ask what you think is superior about the separate boxes.

bzbarsky 15y ago
The fact that it doesn't send everything you type in your URL bar to Google.

baddox 15y ago

That's funny, I couldn't stand to use Firefox (which I only do rarely for development) until I found out about a plugin that combines the address and search bar.

malnourish 15y ago
My favorite feature in Firefox (aside from deeper extensions) is keyword searching. I can right-click a search field, bookmark it with a simple title e.g. wiki, g, i, imdb and then search from the address bar by typing the keyword and then the query. I like this method because it is reliable and doesn't change the look of the address bar. I use Chrome about 25% of the time on Windows and the thing with searching different sites from a blank tab is that it is unreliable for me.
- jaylevitt 15y ago
  Preferences > Manage Search Engines... will do the same thing in Chrome (though it doesn't have the wonderful right-click-to-add ability; you have to enter the URL yourself).
  - tonfa 15y ago
    They get added automatically as soon as you use a search box, just change the keyword to something shorter than the domain name (which is the default keyword).
  - RobAtticus 15y ago
    Actually, Chrome does have the right-click to add ability. At least Chrome 17 (dev channel) does.
- baddox 15y ago
  I used to do this in Firefox (before Chrome came out), and I thought it was great. Then, I switched to Chrome (simply because it was significantly snappier) and quickly realized that just Googling everything directly from the Chrome bar was almost always as good as all those specific shortcuts I had setup in Firefox.

yzhengyu 15y ago

I respectfully disagree. I actually stopped using Firefox because my experience with Chrome's Omnibar convinced me to switch full time. With how the Omnibar works, I no longer need to type in a full URL. It either searched for the site I wanted via Google, via my favourites or via my history and it would get it right almost 100% of the time.

sunir 15y ago

The average user has spoken. They voted with their feet. Chrome surpasses Firefox. http://m.zdnet.com/blog/btl/statcounter-chrome-overtakes-firefox-globally/64429 http://m.zdnet.com/blog/btl/statcounter-chrome-overtakes-fir...

bzbarsky 15y ago
> They voted with their feet Or had Chrome set up as their default browser without their consent when they installed Skype and don't know how to change to a different browser. Hard to tell, obviously.
- j_baker 15y ago
  It's more likely that the vast majority of Chrome users are upgraded to the latest version automatically while IE users are fragmented across multiple versions.
  - bzbarsky 15y ago
    Oh, that's certainly true, but I'm talking about overall install base, not per-version install base. I'd love to see a credible estimate of how much of Chrome's install base is due to the "install it and make it default" bundling deals.

spooneybarger 15y ago

I'd like to be able to get rid of the search bar in firefox et al and just have a single point of entry like chrome.