The Omnibar is one of the many innovations by Google Chrome. Instead of having separate address and search boxes, Chrome utilises a single box for both. The good news for Firefox users craving this functionality is that making Firefox’s Awesomebar emulate the Omnibar is rather simple.

Omnibar extension for Firefox offers a nice mix of features, aesthetics and usability. In order to perform a search just type the query and press Enter. This will open up the default search engine. If you want to use any other search engine, you will need to prefix the query with the search engine name (e.g. “@yahoo test query” if you want to use Yahoo). Search engine keywords are also supported hence you can simply use “@y” instead of “@yahoo”. You can even query multiple search engines simultaneously by using advanced search operators. For example, “@google,yahoo test query” will open both Google and Yahoo search.

Omnibar may not have the psychic powers of Google Chrome, but it still manages to impress with its nifty feature set. In case you don’t want all the additional features offered by Omnibar for Firefox and simply want to merge the address and search bar, you can also use this userstyle for Firefox.

[ Download Firefox Omnibar Extension ]