The omnibox gets autocomplete recommendations which is a very useful feature, how do you expect they could get autocomplete recommendations without sending the prefix to the server? You can also easily disable the feature in settings, it's even right on the front of settings not buried.

Edit: Also if you change your default search engine to Bing, then Chrome is behaving as a keylogger for Microsoft by your definition.

The feature as written indeed can't work without sending every keystroke. That doesn't mean it's any less intrusive. I'd even dare say it was probably not accidentally designed that way.

Still, it's a feature you can disable. I'd love to be able to disable everything the Like buttons of the world do to unsuspecting visitors, but how?

Ghostery.

Besides the fact that that feature is easily disabled (actually if you don't choose Google on first start, it's never enabled).

Chromium is open source, it doesn't include these pieces, yet you still get to benefit from all of WebKit's awesomeness and Google's contributions to it. Like a modern realtime communication platform, new APIs enabling adaptive streaming, WebGL, NaCl and more.

Also, how else would the recommendations work except as described?

Along with Instant, in an ideal world simply by not existing.

When searching online I find it vaguely insulting that my presumed default state is one of not already knowing what I'm looking for, and furthermore the question I'm asking is the same question everybody else is asking.

In the case of both features I'm treated with a flury of distracting, schizophrenic flashes where previously the UI would behave patiently and consistently while I entered my query.

Instant, suggestions, Sets, and the site preview function are begging to be hidden behind a button where you explicitly tell the engine you're confused, and need help figuring out what the vague thing you have in mind really looks like (complete with revolutionary highly visual UI that doesn't resemble a regular search). At least for a user like me.

I wear a hat tin foil hat with a wide brim, so I understand where you are coming from, but I don't think you should take it personally (my parents will probably die never knowing what a browser is, and they simply need help). Just use Chromium with certain modifications to remove all ~tracking related functions, and then add 'noscript', 'ghostery', 'better privacy' and/or other extensions to remove the more intrusive parts of the web (it's the best we can do right now, and no one party is acting significantly more intrusive).

"When searching online I find it vaguely insulting that my presumed default state is one of not already knowing what I'm looking for, and furthermore the question I'm asking is the same question everybody else is asking."

Often when I search, I have a keyword in mind, but not necessarily the wording. The autocomplete is great for helping me refine my query. I'm not really sure why Google suggesting common searches would be insulting?

Exactly. Just because forgotusername values clean non-suggestive UIs doesn't mean everyone else does. If Google is to cater to the majority of their clients which they should, based on just how my non-technical friends and family enjoy Google Instant and auto-completion I'd say they've successfully solved their users' problem.

Not to say all of them. I personally don't make use of either features whatever but at least I can disable both!

> When searching online I find it vaguely insulting that my presumed default state is one of not already knowing what I'm looking for

If you find the Google experience "insulting," you are far too emotionally attached to how you interact with Google's services.