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Do browsers make TCP connections while typing the URL in address bar? I launched nettop utility, and was surprised of how active my connections are, even while only typing an address and not visiting any page.

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While you are typing in the address bar, Google Chrome brings suggestions and URL auto completions from the default search engine (usually Google) and it is made using HTTP or HTTPS connections.

Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari have the same feature.

All browsers have settings that let the user disable the auto complete and search suggestion features.

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  • Thank you! I am a bit surprised, because browser not only fetches the suggestions, but actually also connects to the 3th party website. Try it out yourself. Close browser, relaunch and start typing st... and inspect nettop. You will see that a connection was made to stackoverflow, without you visiting stackoverflow. Which is mind blowing
    – sanjihan
    May 12, 2016 at 10:14
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    @sanjihan This is known as prefetching or prerendering. It is used to make navigation faster, as the browser is prefetching pages even before you go to them.
    – jcbermu
    May 12, 2016 at 10:31

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