What Google has done with Chrome is essentially to formalize the confusion that not-too-clued-up Internet users have had from day one. Large numbers of users seem to have no clear idea of the difference between the browser address line and a search field. They will cheerfully type search terms into the address line, and the fact that many browsers will automatically add '.com' to the end of single words on the address line and get them roughly where they want to go at least some of the time means that they've never had to unlearn that behavior. Conversely, some users will type whole URLs into any single field that they see in the body of any web page they're looking at.

Other users already use Google (or whichever factory-default site pops up when they start their browser) as their point of entry to the web. They don't use bookmarks, they don't type URLs, they don't even seem to be reliably able to click on URLs in messages. They just open a web page and paste or type into the search field, then go to the first entry in the result list. Some of these users display amazingly little awareness of what page they've actually reached, making them prime candidates for phishing.

I can't decide if Chrome has rewarded bad behavior or is simply bowing to the inevitable, but it's a safe bet that the other browser makers will follow suit. This is how it's going to be, so we may as well get used to the implications now.