How the hell do I turn this off ??? (Chrome Autocomplete)

Emp_Fab · July 4

No matter which of the vast array of settings I change in Chrome, I cannot stop the sodding thing from bringing up my previous searches or website history in the address bar. No.... it's not porn before you ask.... I go into incognito mode for that, but I can't use incognito for day to day stuff as it's way too restrictive.

Anyway..... I clear all the history, turn off everything that everyone suggests and still when I start typing in the address bar..... I only have to put in 'F' and immediately it's suggesting all the previous pages I've been to on Facebook etc.

Does anyone know (without changing browsers!) how to stop this ? I just want to type something into the address bar and NOT have Chrome / Google bring up my history / suggestions.

darthed1981 · July 4

Clear your search history from within Chrome and also from your google account if linked - you can also just hit delete over an individual entry I think.

It will come back the next time you google "Am I a grumpy old codger?" though.

stickyfiddle · July 4

I googled it and got hte following:

Go to the upper right corner of the Chrome browser and click the three dots. Select "Settings" from the dropdown menu. Go to "Sync and Google Services" and select it. Toggle the "Autocomplete searches and URLs" option off by scrolling down.

octatonic · July 4

stickyfiddle said:

I googled it and got hte following:

Go to the upper right corner of the Chrome browser and click the three dots. Select "Settings" from the dropdown menu. Go to "Sync and Google Services" and select it. Toggle the "Autocomplete searches and URLs" option off by scrolling down.

Yep, that is it.

Tannin · July 4

Why are you using Chrome?

Seriously.

It's like sitting there chain-smoking and asking whether it's more healthy to drink Coke or Pepsi with your Big Mac.

darthed1981 · July 4

Tannin said:
It's like sitting there chain-smoking and asking whether it's more healthy to drink Coke or Pepsi with your Big Mac.

puff...puff... so which is it?!!

Emp_Fab · July 4

I'm using chrome because I am used to it.

I've got that setting above done but it makes no difference. I hit a key in the URL bar and it populates with every page I've visited beginning with that letter.

boogieman · July 5

Use DuckDuckGo instead.

crunchman · July 5

Switch to Firefox or Brave. Google already has far too much dominance, and has its fingers in far to many pies.

Tannin · July 5

crunchman said:

Switch to Firefox or Brave. Google already has far too much dominance, and has its fingers in far to many pies.

Or Opera, or Vivaldi. Or whatever you like - practically anything is an upgrade on Chrome. (And how long will it take you to get used to it and start being productive? About 2 minutes.

Chrome is a horrorshow mess of tracking, snooping, and intrusive advertising. It offers no known advantage over any of the various alternatives mentioned and multiple disadvantages.

Litterick · July 5

Quant, "The search engine that values you as a user, not as a product."

TTony · July 7

This has bugged me for a while too, Chrome autofilled the URL for a specific page on a site rather than the homepage.

Solution

In the Chrome address bar, start typing the URL for the site that you want to clear.
When the address bar auto-populates with the specific page/link, stop typing and click your mouse on the "X" at the right-end of the address bar.
Auto-populate data is deleted.

Emp_Fab · July 8

But you have to keep doing that... I think I'll switch to Edge. I use it in with and it does the job fine.

crunchman · July 8

Emp_Fab said:

But you have to keep doing that... I think I'll switch to Edge. I use it in with and it does the job fine.

That just means that Microsoft will track you instead of Google tracking you, although they will both track you if you use Google as your default search engine.

Also Edge is not very good if the version we have at work is anything to go by - although it probably isn't the latest.

Something like Firefox or Brave will be better for your privacy. Possibly the other ones that Tannin mentioned above as well, although I don't know much about them.

Emp_Fab · July 8

Ok, I'm going to lose what's left of my mind soon. I've tried using Edge, switched search engines to DuckDuckGo... It seems that every browser and search engine is hell-bent on pushing crap onto you or offering suggestions AND go out of their way to either make the settings to disable it as obscure and hidden as possible or flatly not let you turn it off. Bastards.

I don't care what browser or search engine I have to switch to.... Is there ANY combination I that will let me set my browser Home & New Tab pages to a search engine that presents just a search field - and doesn't suggest shit as I type in either the search engine webpage or the URL field ??

Just the bare minimum - search page, take what I type and search. Nothing else.

I got close with DuckDuckGo, Edge and uBlock Origin ad blocker, but then Edge insisted on my New Tab page being one of their creation.

TTony · July 8

Emp_Fab said:

But you have to keep doing that...

I didn’t.

Did it once, and I no longer get the elongated link to the specific page. Sorted.

Snags · July 8

You can customise the Edge new tab page and turn all the shit off. Edge isn't too bad for privacy if you take the time to configure. Brave has a history of being slightly dishonest and naughty. FireFox gets the best privacy results but you need to mess about with the right extensions. DuckDuckGo as both browser and search is pretty good too.

Emp_Fab · July 8

Yeah, you can customise the Edge new tab page but it still forces you to use the abomination that is Bing. Unless you know of a way around that.....

Snags · July 8

It doesn't. It looks like Bing but if you've set your search engine to A N Other and the location to Address Bar not Search Box it should use your preferred tool.

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories

In this Discussion

Become a Subscriber!

How the hell do I turn this off ??? (Chrome Autocomplete)

Comments