The Aggressive Search Bar Preloading
Google Chrome is built for speed, and to make searching faster, it often experiments with how the address bar (the “Omnibox”) behaves when you open a new tab. One such experimental feature is the “Enable search ready omnibox” flag. When active, opening a new tab immediately focuses your cursor in the Omnibox and, in some variations, visually highlights the search bar or clears the URL of the new tab page so it looks completely empty and ready for your keystrokes.
While this might save a fraction of a millisecond for users who primarily use Chrome as a search engine, it can be jarring for users who rely on New Tab extensions (like Momentum, Infinity, or custom dashboards). If an extension is designed to provide its own search box or focus on a specific widget when a new tab opens, Chrome aggressively stealing focus to the Omnibox breaks the extension’s intended workflow. To restore normal focus behavior and ensure compatibility with New Tab extensions, you must disable this flag.
How to Turn Off the Search Ready Omnibox
You can restore standard address bar focus behavior via the experimental flags menu.
- Open Google Chrome.
- Click inside the main address bar at the top of the browser.
- Type
chrome://flagsand press Enter. - A page titled “Experiments” will load.
- In the search bar at the top, type Enable search ready omnibox (or simply “Omnibox”).
- The specific flag will appear highlighted in yellow. Next to it is a dropdown menu.
- Change the dropdown menu setting from “Default” or “Enabled” to Disabled.
- Click the blue Relaunch button at the bottom of the screen.
Upon restarting, Chrome will stop aggressively altering the focus and appearance of the address bar when opening new tabs, allowing your custom extensions to function exactly as designed.