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I simply want to search through the bookmarks in Google Chrome as I type in the address bar. I don't want to have to type the full URL just to hit a site already stored in my bookmarks.

Google Chrome doesn't seem to catch the bookmark entries and I usually have to type a full URL if I know it.

Is there any way to turn it on to search through the bookmarks or an extension that can do this?

random
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h1d
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    Firefox offers a setting to search for bookmarks in the address bar. It's one of my most used productivity tools with Firefox. – AdamHurwitz Sep 30 '22 at 15:06
  • I suggest sorting answers by "Date modified (newest first)" if you don't want to learn about how Chrome worked in 2010. – Noumenon Feb 03 '23 at 08:18

10 Answers10

147

No bloated extensions necessary. Simply add a new Search engine in Chrome options:

Chrome Settings > Basic > Search > Manage Search Engines > Add

  • Search Engine Name: Chrome Bookmarks
  • Keyword: b
  • URL: chrome://bookmarks/?q=%s

That will allow you to easily search your bookmarks by simply pressing b then a SPACE or TAB.

enter image description here

Stan James
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Jake Wilson
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  • I found this already available in my search engine in recent versions of Chrome. Just type "b " (b-space) to invoke it and type the query you would like to search. – rynmrtn Apr 05 '12 at 14:38
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    If you also use Firefox a lot you could make the keyword '*' so that you can use the same keystrokes in both Firefox and Chrome. – Sam Hasler Jan 17 '13 at 12:46
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    A footnote to the most common answer: The omnibox now searches bookmarks by default. See my answer for a tad more details. – Chris May 01 '13 at 18:40
  • @Jakebud that's great.. how can i just search for my bookmark *folders*? – abbood Sep 15 '13 at 05:52
  • Cool, this is great. – Punit Soni Nov 10 '13 at 21:13
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    So, you find this "great". But what you have: 1. press b and space. 2. enter keyword. 3. press enter. 4. double click on bookmark shown. That all instead of just open the site I need. Is this really that great? Google just want you to open google.com more often. – Andrey Dec 02 '13 at 12:21
  • With Chromium, you'll have to press _TAB_ (instead of space) after typing _b_. – f.cipriani Mar 19 '15 at 16:05
  • This method does not work for localized strings, because query is escaped and hence not found in bookmarks. This is probably not a big bug, because native approach with "suggesting bookmarks while typing in omnibox" (in latest versions) works smoothly. – Stan Mar 23 '16 at 14:17
  • This solution works great, but needs one minor tweak. Remove the `#` in the URL before `q=%s`. If you do not, it will just open the Bookmarks Manager, but not search immediately. – Magicbjørn Jun 29 '18 at 08:53
  • Good call @Magicbjørn. Google probably changed this functionality at one time or another since I wrote this answer 7 years ago. – Jake Wilson Jul 02 '18 at 16:18
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    Thanks a lot! I use it with keyword * just like in firefox! – Laurin Herbsthofer Dec 02 '19 at 09:45
  • I was inspired, you can also search history in the address bar. Search Engine Name: history Keyword: h URL: chrome://history/?q=%s – weiya ou Dec 22 '20 at 03:07
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    On Chrome 91.0.4472.106 this only works until you type the second character: after the third character it stops searching in bookmarks and only proposes search results – Marco Lackovic Jun 19 '21 at 06:54
  • The ideal user flow is that the bookmarks show in the auto-generated search dropdown results, similar to Firefox. – AdamHurwitz Sep 30 '22 at 15:10
9

Go to Tools -> Options -> Basic -> Default Search Manage -> Add...

You can use:

Name: Chrome History (or whatever you want)
Keyword: h
URL: chrome://history/#q=%s&p=0

Now if you want to search for superuser in your history just type "h superuser" into your addressbar. You can use whatever keyword you'd like when you create the link, "h" is just an example. I use this quick search for everything... a-amazon, i-imdb, e-ebay, g-I'm feeling Lucky Google search... You can even be more specific with it, like I use "ipeople" to do a people search on IMDB instead of a regular IMDB search. Just make sure you don't use a keyword you might normally want to search for... I use mostly single letter keywords.

Jarvin
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    I'd like to have it auto complete the URL from the bookmark, just as it does with Safari. (Say, you have superuser.com bookmarked and as soon as I start typing 'sup' in the address bar, it will show candidate bookmarks below the bar including 'sup' and auto completes them as I type more specifically. – h1d Jul 07 '10 at 13:31
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    This seems to search the history, not bookmarks? – Zoredache Feb 01 '11 at 23:50
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    The OP wants to search **bookmarks**, he doesn't want to search in the **history**... – Sk8erPeter May 06 '13 at 22:09
9

This must have been a common feature request, because at least as of Chrome 26, the omnibar does automatically search both bookmarks and search history in addition to the normal integration with Google search. Bookmark matches are marked with a star in the predictive search dropdown.

For what it's worth (not much) see Google's omnibox documentation.

Chris
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    Unfortunately, at the time of this comment, the suggestion list seems a bit broken in this regard. Even with numerous bookmarks matching my query, only maybe one or two bookmark entries are shown - even after changing the chrome://flags/#omnibox-ui-max-autocomplete-matches to a maximum of 12 entries. – MikMak Jul 04 '19 at 15:40
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    Now in 2021, I'm seeing bookmarks appear in search results but they are no longer marked with a star. They are at the bottom of the list of suggestions, and you can tell they're from bookmarks because they include a URL. – Jon Onstott Jan 18 '21 at 17:45
  • This feature works well in Firefox's browser FWIW! – AdamHurwitz Sep 30 '22 at 15:14
7

The Bookmark Search extension should meet your needs.

Screenshot

Just to clarify, I actually wrote this extension. It is not bloated and source code available at GitHub, with a simple permissive license.

Alvin Wong
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  • Works great, I recommend this better than the custom search query solution. In the other solution the first result is just "search bookmarks" which always requires another arrow-down keystroke. – Arad Dec 17 '14 at 15:18
  • This is the best solution: the search doesn't mix with history/web search, the results come in the omnibox itself, rather than an extra page of found bookmarks, like the custom search engine solution. I install this addon everywhere I go. – Benny Bottema Feb 12 '21 at 09:48
6

The solution is the Fauxbar Extension, which brings Firefox-navbar behavior to chrome/chromium:

enter image description here

Diogo
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qubodup
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3

well,actually chrome has provided this function

visit chrome://flags/ ,and turn on the two function "Omnibox short bookmark suggestions" and "Omnibox Bookmark Paths"

just search "bookmark" and you will see all of them just search "bookmark" and you will see all of them

or just use the url below "chrome://flags/#omnibox-short-bookmark-suggestions" "chrome://flags/#omnibox-bookmark-paths"

just turn it on. Then you can search bookmark from url bar without other steps

Toto
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yuhan_jin
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0

In 2023, you can search Chrome bookmarks by typing "@" in the address bar and hitting "Tab".

enter image description here

Noumenon
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0

I created plugin for Chrome to access bookmarks "programmatic way". It was inspired by Intellij IDEA ctrl+shift+n dialog way to access files. I hope you'll like it!)

fedor.belov
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-1

Press [Ctrl]-[E] and start typing the name of the bookmark. As the match from your Bookmarks is found it will be listed as second item, below the Google Search entry. You can go to that item by pressing [Arrow-Down] and then [Enter].

ggponti
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-2

You can search through your bookmarks by pressing CTRL-SHIFT-B. Unfortunately Chrome omnibar is not as efficient as Firefox awesomebar.

Note that there is an issue opened to make Chrome omnibar as "intelligent" as Firefox awesomebar, making it remember the most used keys with associated selected websites (example: if you constantly type "b" in Firefox awesomebar and selects Facebook from it, it would make Facebook be the first shown website when you press "b"). The issue can be viewed here: http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=367, but as today it is not resolved.

FooBar
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    CTRL-SHIFT-B in current Chrome appears to hide or unhide bookmark bar, not search bookmarks! – LeBleu Jun 27 '12 at 21:01