Do a search on how to remove a URL from the Chrome address bar, and you’ll find a lot of confused Firefox users who follow the instructions of experienced Chrome users and get nowhere.

In Firefox, deleting a URL from the address bar is actually a very simple task — highlight the address, press delete (or SHIFT+DEL on a Mac.)

In Chrome, it’s pretty much the same in abstract. But in detail? The experiences are vastly different.

That’s because in Chrome, the address bar isn’t just an address bar — it’s a search interface as well. And the result you see isn’t just an address history … it’s a whole bunch of other stuff, including shortcuts, search results and addresses.

Search results can’t be deleted, and sometimes, those results look exactly the same as your address history. So the Chrome user experience designers have to devise ways to distinguish what you can remove from what you are removing.

(Search results have a magnifying glass icon next to them. You want to delete addresses with the page icon next to them.)

In Firefox, the experience was direct and immediate — type in an address, highlight the address with your mouse, press delete, and the address disappears. You didn’t even need to finish typing the address — if Firefox found a match, it would highlight it for you.

Where Chrome differs is the highlighting — you cannot delete an address in your history if it’s partially highlighted. You must finish typing the complete address before you can highlight it. After it’s highlighted, you may delete it — but don’t expect it to disappear from your interface!

The only indication that an address has been deleted from the address bar history is the removal of the title text next to the highlighted address. If that title text does not disappear, the address was not deleted. To confirm the address has been removed, type it in again — it should no longer appear as a drop-down option.

One thing Chrome makes consistent is the deletion keystroke — it’s SHIFT+DEL on either Windows or Mac.