That bar. Because Google chose to scrap a dedicated search box and address bar and use a single bar that spans the width of the browser, any text entry bar a full URL results in a Google search for the term entered.

For example, typing ‘Twitter’ into the address bar of Firefox takes you directly to the Twitter site. It’s a neat shortcut, and is fairly intelligent in terms of deciphering spelling mistakes or if you’re searching in a rush. Chances are if you’re typing ‘Twitter’, you want to go directly to the twitter site and not to a search. If you want to search, you use the alternative box on the far right.

By using one box for two functions, Chrome has to default to a search result as they don’t know your intentions when entering the term.

It’s a small niggle, and realistically doesn’t affect my work or browsing that much, but it does add an extra click or two into a function that I’ve become pretty used to.