Everything You Can Do From Google Chrome’s Address Bar (Besides Running Searches)

It tends is really only used by developers, but the address bar and search box are at the top of the Google Chrome The interface has an official name: omnibox. It reflects the multipurpose capabilities of this small text field, as it can do much more than look up web addresses and run Google searches.

By knowing about everything the address bar can do, you can save time switching between different apps and websites and get your work done faster. Furthermore, Google continuously adds new features to the address bar. Most recently, as you might expect, the company added one Integration with Gemini AI.

Here are some of our favorites—simply remove the quotes around the text examples below to get the code you need to enter in the address bar.

Chat with Gemini

We just covered the most recent upgrade to the Chrome address bar, so we might as well start here: Type “@gemini” in the address bar, then a space, then Your prompts are for the chatbot. Fight Enterand the query will be run in Google Gemini. Chrome will use whichever flavor of Gemini is in your Google account (so, Gemini Advanced, if you’re a paying user).

Make the conversion

Whatever type of conversion you need, the powerful address bar can help you: Convert kilometers to miles, or dollars to euros, or days to months. All you have to do is enter your desired conversion in a meaningful way. Chrome is pretty good at figuring out what you’re trying to do, so for example, you can type “£34 in US dollars” and Chrome will know you’re looking for a conversion. You’ll immediately see the results appear below—you don’t need to press Enter.

Run basic calculations

On a related note, you can also run simple calculations from Chrome’s address bar without pressing Enter. Anything like “24*8” or “352+91” will immediately display the result below—as will “24*8-352+91″—and you can use brackets if you need to part of a precalculated total. If you press Enter After that, the full Chrome desktop will open.

Check the weather

Want to know the weather, anywhere? Chrome will let you know.Courtesy of David Nield

Chrome can report on weather conditions directly from the address bar. Just type “weather” (no need to press Enter) to see a small description of current conditions everywhere. Note that this only gives the most accurate results if Chrome has access to your current location. Add a town, city or postal code at the bottom to see conditions in that location and tap Enter after your query for a more detailed forecast.

Search your bookmarks

You can search through your Chrome bookmarks right from the address bar without having to open the browser’s built-in Bookmark Manager. You’ll first need to type in the name of one of your bookmark folders so Chrome knows what you’re trying to do, and then you can write any word or phrase to see instant results for the pages. saved in that bookmarks folder.

Create notes in Chrome

If you need to quickly think about Chrome and don’t want to launch a separate program, enter the code “data:text/html, ” Enter will give you a blank tab that you can type into. It’s not the most advanced text editor—there’s no formatting and no autosave—but it works well as a quick solution for taking notes.

Get quick definitions

If you’re not sure what a particular word means, Chrome can tell you, and you don’t have to leave the page you’re on to find out the definition. Type “define,” followed by a space, then the word you want to understand the meaning of, and the basic definition will appear below. To return to the URL of the page you’re viewing, tap Exit to remove the definition.

The Chrome address bar can define any word for you.Courtesy of David Nield

Create new document

You can quickly create a new document, spreadsheet, or presentation in Google’s online office suite by typing “docs.new”, “sheets.new” or “slides.new” in the address bar . When you press EnterThe new file will be created in Google Drive for the current Google account. To create a new file in a new window (leaving the current file), use Shift+Enter after your command.

There are many things .new shortcut can launch and Google continues to add more new capabilities.

Start a new email

There’s a similar trick for creating a new email in your computer’s default email client: Type “mailto:” and tap Enter to open a blank email. You can also pre-populate the To: destination field by entering the address after a colon if you know it. To set the default email client on Windows, select Apps > Default apps from Settings; on macOS, select Mail > Settings > General from Apple Mail.

Run an instant Google search

On many Google searches, you’ll get the answer above the list of links on the results page. These “instant” searches also work in Chrome. Ask about facts (like the height of the Eiffel Tower or the mass of Jupiter), the age of a celebrity, the date until a certain date, the current stock price of a company, the size of countries, authors of books, etc