Have you ever sent a contact to the wrong person because of your email client’s autocomplete function?
Do you have an embarrassing web address in your location bar’s autocomplete you wish you could delete?
Have you ever sent an accidentally inappropriate text message thanks to autocorrect?
These are all outcomes from the dangerous convenience of predictive technology. As the New York Times writes, autofill and autocomplete are the culprit behind a wide range of gaffs and miscommunications. We rely on them, but they all too quickly turn on us at the wrong moment.
In fact, there’s a website completely dedicated to the hilarious, bawdy, and outright obscene accidents of autocorrect called “Damn You Autocorrect.” (Be aware: this website might be considered NSFW.)
As for those annoying web addresses in your location bar you’d like to delete, there are simple shortcuts to fixing the problem. Here are two brief tutorials for Chrome and Firefox:
For Chrome: “Delete annoying URL predictions from Chrome’s omnibox”
For Firefox: “Remove websites from the Awesome Bar suggestions“
