Google has removed the ability to delete address bar search engines from the Chrome browser, citing the option as unnecessary and detrimental, even. Funnily enough, right as the feature was removed, it’s being brought back in future updates.
Sometimes, when going through one’s settings, the urge to clean out unnecessary contents becomes rather palpable. Perhaps that is the exact same feeling that convinces many users across the world to delete previous default search engines as soon as they settle on a new one. It’s a clean slate for both user and browser, with little to no advantages or repercussions either way. Or, so we thought, because if Google is to be believed, there are some serious repercussions of deleting previously held default search engines.
Conversation for this interface update and why it was implemented can be followed along with on the Chromium bugs website, since the new interface itself is currently experimental and hasn’t seen any widespread integration. Essentially, users were discussing the cons of having a delete button for default search engines so easily accessible, since less knowledgeable individuals could potentially just delete something with no way of bringing it back. They could lose entire browser histories, suggestions, and specialized URLs. It’d end up being a reverse spell that has no way of being rectified. Therefore, since Google thought that absolutely no one would ever like a clean slate, so novel an idea, the company decided that removing the delete feature entirely in a single swoop would be the way to go. And it was, for approximately half an hour, following which individuals started complaining since the delete feature had more use to it than as a clearing space tool.
Certain users kept finding that no matter how much they tried to switch default search engines, the likes of Chrome would keep bringing the original ones back, absolutely refusing to budge for change. Therefore, many users saw the delete button as a more permanent method being fully free of older search engines. After all, suggestions and specialized URLs are mostly tailored to personal preferences that keep changing anyways, so what if someone has to start with a blank slate?
Google has acknowledged the error of its ways and is back at work re-implementing the delete feature.
H/T: GHacks / Reddit / 2.
Read next: Reminder, not everything that appears on first rank in Google Search result in safe!
Sometimes, when going through one’s settings, the urge to clean out unnecessary contents becomes rather palpable. Perhaps that is the exact same feeling that convinces many users across the world to delete previous default search engines as soon as they settle on a new one. It’s a clean slate for both user and browser, with little to no advantages or repercussions either way. Or, so we thought, because if Google is to be believed, there are some serious repercussions of deleting previously held default search engines.
Conversation for this interface update and why it was implemented can be followed along with on the Chromium bugs website, since the new interface itself is currently experimental and hasn’t seen any widespread integration. Essentially, users were discussing the cons of having a delete button for default search engines so easily accessible, since less knowledgeable individuals could potentially just delete something with no way of bringing it back. They could lose entire browser histories, suggestions, and specialized URLs. It’d end up being a reverse spell that has no way of being rectified. Therefore, since Google thought that absolutely no one would ever like a clean slate, so novel an idea, the company decided that removing the delete feature entirely in a single swoop would be the way to go. And it was, for approximately half an hour, following which individuals started complaining since the delete feature had more use to it than as a clearing space tool.
Certain users kept finding that no matter how much they tried to switch default search engines, the likes of Chrome would keep bringing the original ones back, absolutely refusing to budge for change. Therefore, many users saw the delete button as a more permanent method being fully free of older search engines. After all, suggestions and specialized URLs are mostly tailored to personal preferences that keep changing anyways, so what if someone has to start with a blank slate?
Google has acknowledged the error of its ways and is back at work re-implementing the delete feature.
H/T: GHacks / Reddit / 2.
Read next: Reminder, not everything that appears on first rank in Google Search result in safe!