Firefox's bar works exactly the same as Chrome's now. And even long before FF started letting you search from the address bar without search keywords, you could use search keywords.
Firefox's bar works exactly the same as Chrome's now.
Is it exactly the same? In Firefox, AFAIK you don't get every URL you type sent off to Google for logging as part of the instant search system; that only happens with things you type in the separate search box. In Chrome, I'm not sure whether it's the default for a new installation at the moment, but that capability is definitely there for anything you type in the (only) box.
I meant exactly the same as far as an average user is concerned - you never have to use the search box (I remove it), you can just put search terms in the main box and it'll use the configured provider.
I will admit FF is a little worse at confusing search terms for a URL on occasion, but that's a minor annoyance at best.
It wasn't the annoyance I was commenting on, but rather the privacy implications of combining the two bars when what you would type in one of them is typically sent off to some search engine somewhere in real time.
I prefer the in-bar history searching in FF too.