Google Just Upgraded Chrome's Address Bar With 3 New Abilities That You'll Love

All web browsers look essentially the same these days, but that wasn't always the case. Browsers used to have separate search and address bars until Google set a new standard when it merged them in Chrome. The Chrome address bar, sometimes called the "omnibox," has continued to get smarter over the years, and the latest change adds three new ways to search your web activity.

Click in the address bar, and you'll have access to three new search shortcuts: @tabs, @bookmarks and @history. They work a bit like Chrome's custom search engine tool—just type the shortcut and hit space to enter your query. You can also simply type "@" and click on the suggested shortcut buttons that appear as suggestions. Combine this with the Alt+D shortcut to highlight the address bar, and you don't even have to take your hands off the keyboard to dig around in your tabs, bookmarks, or history.

After selecting your shortcut, just start typing. Chrome will suggest content as you type. For instance, you can use @tabs to find a page that's become lost in the shuffle. Don't want to click through the menus to check your history? Just type @history and the first few letters of a page title to see it appear before your eyes. And the same goes for all those pages you bookmark and then forget about.

Importantly, you don't have to open a new tab to use these search shortcuts. Google doesn't mention any minimum Chrome version for this feature—it appeared for us immediately in the current stable version (108). Keep in mind, this trick only works on the desktop versions of Chrome. The mobile app lacks these new shortcuts, as does the option to make custom search engines.