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Google Chrome - searching sites from the URL bar

Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2010 1:47 am
by greyhoundcode
While using Google Chrome I noticed a behaviour I hadn't previously encountered: I typed in amazon.co.uk, accidentally hit tab and noticed that amazon.co.uk changed to become Search amazon.co.uk.

Quite a handy feature, though it doesn't work for every website - does anyone know anything further about enabling this or how it works?

Re: Google Chrome - searching sites from the URL bar

Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2010 1:48 am
by Benjamin
I don't know if they document this stuff. I think they add these features ad-hoc based on user behaviour.

Re: Google Chrome - searching sites from the URL bar

Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2010 1:53 am
by greyhoundcode
Yeah I hadn't noticed it before, potentially quite a good shortcut though. What is interesting is that it uses Amazon's own search facility, rather than being an alternative of my favourite book and author site:amazon.co.uk.

Re: Google Chrome - searching sites from the URL bar

Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2010 5:54 am
by Weirdan
Basically it works like this:
  • You type 'some search term' into some form field and send this form
  • If Chrome notices the 'some search term' string in the address bar right after you have sent the form, it adds that url as a search provider that you may use from address bar from now on
So after you browse for a while Chrome learns the sites you use and search on and provides quick shortcuts to their search pages, without requiring site owners to change anything on their sites (provided that they use 'GET' method in their search forms).