Disable address bar search in Google Chrome at www.google.com

I am aware of this question: How to disable search in the Google Chrome address bar?and this one:Force Chrome to open URLs as URLs, instead of searching

However, both of those are about URL searches in the address bar so I don't think I'm asking the same question.

Anyway, when I go to in Google Chrome and want to use the search box, which is in the middle of the screen, as soon as I start typing Chrome is forcing my search text into the address bar instead.

Under some circumstances I don't fully understand or can replicate reliably sometimes a search box appears just below the search bar instead (this is actually the default behavior in all other browsers I tested at ).

I think it is very "user-unfriendly" and a major design and usability flaw to move the text the user is typing to a different location while the user is typing the text. What I want is for my search text not to be moved to the address bar, or the search box itself to be moved as is the case with other browsers, while I'm typing.

Is there any way to achieve this while performing searches at

3 Answers

Dean. That's a misconception you have. That page you opened is actually the Chrome new tab page. If you set Google as your homepage and open it, there will be no problem. That place you wrote in is just an extension of the omnisearch bar.

I found a workaround. Change your default omnibox search engine to anything other than Google. Then the Google home page will operate normally.

Go to search settings and tick 'Never show instant results'. This stops the search bar moving to the top of the screen. For some reason, I have to do this every time I clear browser history, but it does work.