Chrome search refinements on their way
Google's performing a little bit of liposuction on search in Chrome, in an attempt to make accessing search faster.
Some slight search changes are coming to Chrome, as Google updates the developer's version of the browser today to make getting to your search results more quickly.
Initially released to a small subset of people using Chrome dev for Windows (download) and the developer's version of Chrome OS (read CNET review) that also have Google set as their default search provider, the changes affect both the new tab page and any searches you type into your location bar.
Google software engineer David Holloway wrote in his blog post announcing the search improvements that they're a response to people still navigating to their preferred search engine's home page instead of searching from the location bar.
On the new tab page, the default search engine provider will be able to embed a search box and "otherwise customize" the page. Google didn't specify what those customizations could be.
In the omnibox, Google's term for the URL field in the location bar, search engines can show search terms in the omnibox, precluding the need for a second search box on the results page. Since I haven't gotten access to the feature and Google has not posted any screenshots, it's not clear if you won't be able to see your search results URL.
Search engine providers can add the features via the new Embedded Search API, an extension of the SearchBox API, wrote Holloway. He also said that Chrome dev on Mac will get the update at some point in the future.