...which is pretty funny, since I'd assume that if I begin typing an url, I'd assume it would primarily search and use my local browsing history. But no, it gives more weight to sending me to a google search, presumably so google has the chance to show some ads to me. User-hostile design, not happy with it.
The address bar is a search box. All of my Google queries go through it. So of course I want it to autocomplete Google search results, not just my local history. Fortunately it does both and gets the balance pretty right. It's 100% user-friendly design for me, satisfied customer over here.
I mean most people I know google "gmail" instead of typing "gmail.com" but I cannot see how this is an argument for being considered primarily a search box and not autocompleting "gmail.com", if anything kind of the opposite and all this is ridiculous.
If you're using Firefox the keyword for controlling that is 'frecency'. Adjusting the values there in about:config will let you boost history and bookmarks.
