I don’t think that argument makes any sense. Do people who use external bookmark managers suddenly stop using search? Also, this isn’t just about Chrome.
For many people, Google is sort of their bookmark manager.
Want to open Facebook? Search 'Facebook' and click on the link.
Want to open your bank site ? Again google bank name and click on the link.
I've see even tech people do this. The only bookmarks I've seen my colleagues use are for internal reference wikis and links which are not readily searchable.
I don't know whether this is a search or UX or people problem but the whole workflow can be improved for sure.
Browser opened to Bing? Type "Google", then type "Facebook" then click on the link. Nevermind that typing "F"+enter in the addressbar would have worked.
It's UX, but Google and Bing want it this way, so...
I've found I manually type out certain subsets of URLs where possible[0], maybe that's subconsciously associated with my impression that Google Search results have gotten worse and worse over the years.
> I've found I manually type out certain subsets of URLs where possible
If you are doing this often enough, may be adding a custom keyword search might help. Both chrome and Firefox support it.
Very useful with random JIRA and other ticket/id type navigation to skip search and jump directly to their pages.
> maybe that's subconsciously associated with my impression that Google Search results have gotten worse and worse over the years.
It has gotten worse and I don't think even Google will contest that claim.
I don't think the point is they will stop searching.
But they will search less. Which, as we have seen in the recent Google anti-trust case, is also a point Google looks at intensively when they introduce new features.
