Browserama
What is an omnibox?
By Sidekick Team
You use it every time you browse not knowing it has a name. The omnibox is a web browser’s address bar on steroids. You can also use it as a search engine bar and even for math calculations.
Why is it called an omnibox?
Omni means “all’ or ‘universal’. The omnibox or the omnibar is used for a variety of tasks and that’s why it is called that way.
What can an omnibox do?
The omnibox remembers your search history and offers search suggestions. It also shows suggestions of your visited web sites when you start typing. Google Chrome was the first major browser to introduce omnibox, so Google is the default search engine in your omnibox when you use Chrome or other Chromium-based browsers.
Nevertheless, you can assign another search engine in your browser’s settings. This allows to use omnibox for search through any website, as long as it’s in the list of your search engines.
The omnibox can serve as a calculator or an event scheduler. You can also use the omnibox to launch apps and to search through specific programming code.
Are there omnibox extensions?
You can upgrade your browser’s omnibox by installing some cool extensions. Some of them can transform your address/search bar into a timer or into a handy twitter search engine.
Is there an alternative to the omnibox?
Sidekick’s Global Search feature ⌥ F (Option-F) is a powerful tool that helps searching through all of your pages, messengers, docs, files and apps.
How to customize new search engine for the omnibox?
A quick instruction for Chrome and Sidekick
Click the three vertical dots at the top right corner of the page
Then click Settings
Click Search Engine. Choose Manage Search Engines and click on Add. Type new search engine URL.