How to Fix the Most Annoying Thing About Google Search

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Google Search — the feature you likely use every time you type something in your browser’s search bar — is the most popular search engine on the planet.

Millions and millions of people use it for everything and anything, from researching school projects to shopping for the latest gaming consoles, looking for cool new recipes to finding that movie you can’t remember the name of.

The problem is that when typing fast, we all can fall victim to the occasional spelling error. And since Google remembers, it will autofill that mistake over and over again. Ugh.

Fortunately, Google is smart enough to remember, and it can be trained to forget. Whether you’re using Google Search in Chrome, or another web browser like Safari or Firefox, here’s how you can delete mistakes as well as disable its auto-fill feature entirely.

Delete a single auto-fill suggestion in Chrome

Gear Patrol

1. Open Chrome.
2. Start typing the mistaken web address in the Search Bar.
3. The incorrect web address will appear in Chrome’s autocomplete suggestion area below the Search Bar.
4. Scroll down using your keyboard’s arrow keys until the autocomplete suggestion is highlighted.
5. Click the X on the far-right of the highlighted search suggestion.

Boom, done. You won’t see that auto-fill suggestion anymore. Another option is to turn off all auto-fill predictions in general. Here’s how.

Turn off popular search suggestions in Chrome

Gear Patrol

1. Open Chrome and go to google.com.
2. Select Settings in the bottom-right corner.
3. Select Search settings in the drop-down menu.
4. Select the Other settings tab (on the left).
5. Scroll down to the Autocomplete with trending searches section and de-select it.

Delete a password or address from Chrome’s Autofill memory

Gear Patrol

1. Open Chrome.
2. Select the three vertical dots in the upper-right corner of Chrome browser.
3. Select Passwords and Autofill.
4. From here you can find your old usernames, passwords, addresses and payment methods and wipe them from Chrome’s memory.

How to reset your Chrome settings entirely

Gear Patrol

1. Open Chrome.
2. Select the three vertical dots in the upper-right corner of Chrome browser.
3. Select Settings.
4. Select Reset settings (located near the bottom left of the side menu ).
5. Select Restore settings to their original defaults.
6. Select Reset settings.

Turn off Google’s auto-fill Search suggestions in Safari

Gear Patrol

1. Open Safari.
2. Select the Safari option in your Mac’s menu bar (in the top left corner of your screen).
3. Select Settings in the drop-down menu.
4. Select the Search option.
5. In this screen, Google should be selected as your default search engine.
6. Deselect the option that says “Include search engine suggestions.”

Turn off Google’s auto-fill Search predictions in Firefox

Gear Patrol

1. Open Firefox.
2. Select the Firefox option in the menu bar at the top of your screen.
3. Select Settings.
4. Select the Search tab on the left side of your screen.
5. Make sure Google is selected as your default search engine. (It should be.)
6. Under Search Suggestions, deselect the option that says “Show search suggestions.”

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