Some of us spent years convincing the Internet newbs that the URL bar was not a search bar. Typing keywords into the URL bar was a giant no-no, and at one point doing so could get you cut out of my will, right alongside the people who clicked Internet links twice to “launch the link.”
But then Google came along and pretty much restored the fight all over again, despite years of teeth-gnashing and passive aggressive comments from IT professionals watching you use “Google” over your shoulder. Kidding aside, creating an Omnibar, was probably one of the smartest usability moves Chrome could have made. People are hell bent on using the URL bar as a search bar, so why on earth wouldn’t they give it to users? They’re trying to search there anyway, right?
Here’s the problem though. I’m not a Chrome users at all. Instead I prefer Safari, and that means no Omnibar for me — until now. A SafariOmnibar plugin has popped up on Github, and is now available for download and installation. All you have to do is download the installer, and be running Safari 5.0 (Snow Leopard) or 5.1 (Lion).
The applications makes use of SIMBL, the Simple Bundle Loader, that lets developers and users create plugins for applications that don’t have plugin support. SIMBL 1.9.9 is included in the installation package, and installs seamlessly. You won’t even notice it in action at all. Simply run the package installer, restart Safari, and start using your URL bar as a search engine, just like it was intended, apparently.
