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I have bookmarked some sites with titles "Free mp3 song", "Free video" and so on.

When I am searching for "Free " in address bar, the bookmarked sites are shown first. How can I hide the bookmarked sites from showing in address bar?

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  • 3
    Aside from simply renaming them? – Blacklight Shining Oct 7 '13 at 12:44
  • Arrange them in folder and they will not bother you anymore. – avirk Oct 7 '13 at 15:16
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    This just isn't possible. Google has stated it will never be an option. – DanteTheEgregore Oct 7 '13 at 20:58
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    @avirk All my bookmarks are arranged in folders. it is not a solution. – Eugine Joseph Oct 8 '13 at 5:52
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    Not a real solution but Firefox has an option to stop bookmarks from being suggested when typing in the address bar. And you can import bookmarks from firefox to chrome. Most chrome apps and extensions have a counterpart for firefox. But I don't recommend migrating to another browser for something you can ignore. – Subaru Tashiro Oct 9 '13 at 11:47
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The Problem

The Chrome devs have stated this will never be an option.

The same as the reason we don't add options for most other things. It increases UI and code complexity, testing load, and general maintenance costs. In the case of the omnibox the whole system is designed around inline autocompletion and would require a serious rework to support an off-by-default option.

Comment 1 stands. We intend to fix problems on a case-by-case basis. We don't intend to ever provide an option to disable autocompletion.

Chrome's Omnibar has an heuristic algorithm that learns from your actions, so if you repeatedly type "h" and select the third suggestion from the browser history, it will increase its ranking. Bookmarks are supposed to be the most interesting pages from your browser history, so it's obvious that you'll find them in the list of suggestions. For now, there's no option to disable the suggestions from the browser history and your bookmarks.

I'd even hazard that Google is a bit too in love with their own product

Options

You can try replacing Chrome's Omnibar with Fauxbar. Fauxbar appears to have better control of search suggestions among other things.

Is Fauxbar for me?

  • When using Chrome's Omnibox, have you ever typed in part of a page title or address you know you've been to, yet no relevant results appear?
  • Do you find the Omnibox's mix of search suggestions, website suggestions, bookmarks and history items (or lack thereof) confusing?
  • Do you like having the option to click to use a search engine, instead of typing its name to use it?
  • Are you not using Chrome because you can't stand its Omnibox?

If you answered yes, then Fauxbar is for you.

Here's a look at Fauxbar's suggestion settings:

Fauxbar Settings

A note: Fauxbar doesn't actually replace Omnibar. It replaces the new tab page in Chrome and grabs the focus from the Omnibar upon opening a new tab.

Disclaimer: I'm in no way affiliated with Fauxbar. It's just a suggestion I've found on multiple sites that could work.

As it stands, I'm surprised there aren't more Omnibar replacements out there. I imagine it would be difficult to actually replace the Omnibar physically, but options such as Fauxbar do seem like a good alternative. I'd love to know if there are any further options available.

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  • 4
    The "official" reason sounds like a bunch of nonsense. I think, like you said, they just love their perfect product so much that they want to force it onto every user, whether they like it or not. – user3932000 Jan 28 '17 at 22:58
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An easy fix would be to:

Settings

Locate people

Click add person

and browse with that account when you are in the company where you do not wish to disclose personal bookmarks.

When you open their Chrome, they will have no bookmarks that relate to your original Chrome account and you can still open the original Chrome account with all your bookmarks in place.

I would highly recommend this to be the answer, above the original best answer this is the most efficient way of dealing with the situation without having to download software or mess around with things.

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  • the problem is chrome also takes suggestions based on who you are logged in as, so you can create a new user with no history, then log in from a certain email account and searches come up associated with that email account, chrome is that bad. – barlop Sep 15 '18 at 10:02
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I think I may have found one answer. Bookmarks won't show up if saved when using a "incognito window". Before doing this exercise, clear your browser cache and disable any settings which allow auto URL and/or saving any other browser settings.

  1. Select "New incognito window" from the three vertical dots in the upper right corner of the browser.
  2. A new "incognito window" will open.
  3. Browse sites as usual.
  4. While in the "incognito window", bookmark pages (manually), by dragging them from the URL bar to folder in your bookmark bar.

What I found is those sites bookmarked while in a "incognito window", will not show (auto-populate) up in the URL box when typing address.

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1

Although Google seems to make this impossible, I have found a solution around the problem that works for me. I have certain bookmarks that I do not want some people like my family to see if they start typing into the address bar. So I use Xmarks (bookmarks backup and access) and Torch (web browser). I keep one account for all bookmarks including private with Xmarks so that I can access my bookmarks with password anywhere from any browser and backed-up. I keep all private bookmarks out of Chrome but store them in the Torch browser for private browsing. Torch is exactly like Chrome and compatible with all extensions with the bonus of downloading videos. As long as the family doesn't use the Torch browser, they will never see my private bookmarks.

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An even simpler solution I found if you have bookmarks that you do not want showing up when you type in the Chrome address bar/omnibox is to use the "Secure Bookmarks" extension. This allows you to transfer some or all of your bookmarks to the extension, which is passworded and easily accessible when you need them. This will stop them from showing up in the address bar.

I resent that this took me hours to discover because Google refused to give us the option.

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  • 1
    this doesn't seem very good, the password that extension requires has to be quite long.. it doesn't let you use a simple password like 'a' (and that's even putting aside whether the extension allows a plain text backup of bookmarks it contains) – barlop Sep 15 '18 at 6:57
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You could use Atavi Bookmarks, or just manually save a bookmarks.bak from your AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default folder.

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Fauxbar lite worked for me. It is a chrome extension. The reason I was looking for this, is so that "adult bookmarks" hidden in nested menu's don't show up in the address bar, when my 9 year old borrows my laptop.

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The easiest way I have found that does not involve installing extensions is using a URL shortener (bitly, tinyurl) to mask the URL and save the shortened URL as the bookmark.

Hope this helps!

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-3

You can also just go to setting, then go to the bottom of the page an hit "show advanced settings". An under "privacy" you can un-check the box " Use a prediction service to help complete searches an URLs typed in the address bar or the app launcher search bar". This will prevent your book marks from coming up but only in regular chrome not in "incognito" mode. Also you may have to be more detailed in your searches to get what you need when searching.

I hope that this helps.

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  • wrong. this only turns off google search suggestion. bookmarks still show up. – guest-vm Jun 22 '16 at 9:49

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