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One time I searched for Orange Juice in Chrome's Omnibar. Now, every time I start typing Orange, I get the search suggestion:

How do I get Chrome to stop offering me this search suggestion? If I need to edit some config file, I can do that.

Please don't post answers if you haven't ensured they work first. (This is intended to prevent people from answering "Press Shift-Delete.")

Clarification: I'd prefer a solution in which I can selectively delete entries, not just by time segment. I also prefer a solution that does not involve cancelling any Chrome functionality.

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I think you have to clear cache of the browser to get rid of this. – Darius Aug 22 '11 at 18:37
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@Ram Rachum: Why do you downvote answers that don't work for you but that do work for others? – harrymc Aug 27 '11 at 5:38
If everyone who it doesn't work for gives a downvote and everyone who it does work for give an upvote, we'll have a pretty good idea on which answers are good. – Ram Rachum Aug 28 '11 at 14:32
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4 Answers

up vote 6 down vote accepted
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The term "orange juice" is stored inside a table called "keyword_search_terms" inside a SQLite database file named "History" in the "C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default" folder.

(Ah SQLite, the most popular/prevalent database software in the planet....)

Use a SQLite database browser such as SQLite Browser or the Firefox addon called SQLite Manager to peek into the above file. Next, find "orange juice" within the "lower_term" column of the "keyword_search_terms" table, delete that row, and save changes.

Easy as pie, more or less.

You need to make sure Chrome is not running. If you want to do this in one command, SQLite can run SQLite SQL scripts, too. Something like "DELETE FROM keyword_search_terms WHERE lower_term = 'orange juice'".

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Great. I apologize for the half-bounty, SO didn't notify me that the bounty was ending. – Ram Rachum Sep 2 '11 at 18:45
How does manually deleting a row affect the rest of the database? Doesn’t it mess up the other tables when you remove an indexed row? Don’t all the other rows that have the corresponding id now point to nothing? What about the other files like Archived History or the monthly ones? I would love a manual solution, but I have found the Chrome databases to be too intertwined and messy to be that easily editable. – Synetech Sep 6 '11 at 20:56
@Synetech: Deleting a row causes a row in the url table to have nothing pointing to it. This url row is orphaned, a waste of a few bytes of space. That's okay, because if you think about it, Chrome traverses from keyword_search_terms to url and never ever the other way around. Also, nothing uniquely points to keyword_search_terms. The Archived History or the monthly files are unaffected. Lastly, Synetech, c'mon, what's the worst thing that could happen? :) – William C Sep 7 '11 at 4:11
> worst thing that could happen? You could corrupt the history and lose all record of the sites you’ve visited. I’m not one of those people who has to wipe out all traces of all the seedy things they do. :-) – Synetech Sep 7 '11 at 5:29
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up vote 6 down vote

Instead of going into Options to delete entries, you can also delete history by hitting CTRL+H: Hit edit items... Check your items and hit delete

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Tried it, didn't work. Searched for my search term, found a Google search, deleted it like you said, restarted Chrome, but still getting the search suggestion. – Ram Rachum Aug 22 '11 at 23:49
This works with mine, even after restarting Chrome: imgur.com/a/ZxgzN#DqIOk – Kaze Aug 26 '11 at 21:16
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up vote 3 down vote

Upon further investigation and rereading your question, it seems that you can't nuke search entries selectively. It's buried in there in your profile in some obscure cache file or something.

However, you can disable the autocomplete:

The prediction service is typically turned on by default. Follow the steps below to turn it off.

  1. Click the wrench icon tools menu on the browser toolbar.
  2. Select Options (Preferences on Mac and Linux; Settings on a Chromebook).
  3. Click the Under the Hood tab.
  4. In the "Privacy" section, deselect the "Use a prediction service to help complete searches and URLs typed in the address bar" checkbox.

Keep in mind that the address bar shows matches from your browsing history, in addition to predictions. If you don't want to see matches from your browsing history, clear your browsing history.

You can couple this with the disable history suggestions flag, --disable-history-quick-provider.

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I'll keep looking for a solution that doesn't involve cancelling Chrome functionality. – Ram Rachum Aug 23 '11 at 18:12
@Ram Unfortunately, since Chrome is not very extensible, that means you're going to be spending some time either lobbying Chrome devs or implementing what you want yourself. Sorry. – digitxp Aug 23 '11 at 18:16
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Let's see: IE has allowed you to do this almost as long as it has had an address bar. Firefox has too. Chrome, you've got some catching up to do. – music2myear Aug 26 '11 at 20:49
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up vote 2 down vote

Click the wrench icon in the upper right corner

select options

select under the hood on the left side

select clear browsing data

select a time from obliterate the following items from

check clear browsing history

click clear browsing data

restart Chrome and your searches are gone.

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I'd prefer a solution in which I can selectively delete entries, not just by time segment. – Ram Rachum Aug 22 '11 at 19:19
I believe this your only solution. Other wise turn off autocomplete. – SgtOJ Aug 23 '11 at 0:40
@Brian no it’s not the only solution, you can delete individual items instead of resorting to a scorched-Earth method as above. – Synetech Aug 26 '11 at 21:17
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