A client recently said his browser was playing up. He couldn't type into the search field on the Google Home page. The field where it states "Search Google or type URL". The field was greyed out and the cursor would jump to the address bar when he started to type. The problem for him was the address bar was much smaller and more difficult to read than the Google Home page search field.
I'd not seen this behaviour before and my first thought was that it could be malware. A couple of tests and malware wasn't the problem. The question then is what had changed for the client. Because the client's hard disk had failed the computer had a fresh install of Windows 7 and Google Chrome.
With a bit of testing I determined this appears to be the behaviour designed by Google into the Chrome browser. If you have the default search set to Google, when you type into the search field on the Google Home page, the cursor will jump to the address bar area and enter your search request there. It works but it's confusing and unexpected behaviour for users and one could argue it is a poor design decision.
The good thing is it's easy to work around and get the Google Home page "Search Google or type URL" field working as you'd expect. You just need to make two changes in Settings for the browser.
1. Change the default search engine to something other than Google such as Bing. This is the setting "Search engine used in the address bar" found in the Search engine section.
2. Set up www.Google.com as your default page that opens when you open the browser. You can set this in the On start-up section. Select Open a specific page or set of page, click on the three vertical dots, select Edit and type in the page (such as https://www.Google.com) you want to open when you open Google Chrome.
How long this behaviour has been occurring I don't know. I use my own search page https://www.AdvancedSearch.com.au/SearchGoogle/ or https://www.AdvancedSearch.com.au/SearchBing/, as my own search page takes me direct to hundreds of sites if I type in the company's name or product, avoiding the search engine results page and saving time.
Because this design by Google confuses people, is not expected behaviour, is different from how other browsers behave, or even how Google Chrome behaves with different settings, it could probably be considered poor design on Google's behalf. The design however could be a deliberate strategy to enforce the Google Home page isn't required for searching and people can use the Address bar.
Whatever the reason you now know the issue isn't a bug or malware and you can easily change your settings to create the behaviour you want.
Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
IT support
I'd not seen this behaviour before and my first thought was that it could be malware. A couple of tests and malware wasn't the problem. The question then is what had changed for the client. Because the client's hard disk had failed the computer had a fresh install of Windows 7 and Google Chrome.
With a bit of testing I determined this appears to be the behaviour designed by Google into the Chrome browser. If you have the default search set to Google, when you type into the search field on the Google Home page, the cursor will jump to the address bar area and enter your search request there. It works but it's confusing and unexpected behaviour for users and one could argue it is a poor design decision.
The good thing is it's easy to work around and get the Google Home page "Search Google or type URL" field working as you'd expect. You just need to make two changes in Settings for the browser.
1. Change the default search engine to something other than Google such as Bing. This is the setting "Search engine used in the address bar" found in the Search engine section.
2. Set up www.Google.com as your default page that opens when you open the browser. You can set this in the On start-up section. Select Open a specific page or set of page, click on the three vertical dots, select Edit and type in the page (such as https://www.Google.com) you want to open when you open Google Chrome.
How long this behaviour has been occurring I don't know. I use my own search page https://www.AdvancedSearch.com.au/SearchGoogle/ or https://www.AdvancedSearch.com.au/SearchBing/, as my own search page takes me direct to hundreds of sites if I type in the company's name or product, avoiding the search engine results page and saving time.
Because this design by Google confuses people, is not expected behaviour, is different from how other browsers behave, or even how Google Chrome behaves with different settings, it could probably be considered poor design on Google's behalf. The design however could be a deliberate strategy to enforce the Google Home page isn't required for searching and people can use the Address bar.
Whatever the reason you now know the issue isn't a bug or malware and you can easily change your settings to create the behaviour you want.
Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
IT support
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