An Unknown Tool Bar At The Bottom Of Safari Presents A Mystery

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Hi All!

My wife noticed on her iPad that when she touches the Safari URL bar at the top of the screen, a row of buttons appears at the bottom of the screen. We don't know if it has always been there, just unnoticed- or if it is something new.

One of the buttons is a square box. If it is tapped, the URL bar will have a random entry that is related to, but not exactly, a previous search.
Tapping that square (in the lower left side in the photo) also brings up a big, usually empty, box. Once the box had the same thing that was in the URL bar repeated a few times.
If I am at a web site, tapping one of the circular arrows takes me back or forward in our current session, just like the arrows at the top do. The arrow on the right removes the mystery tool bar.

The item in the URL bar can be related to a search that was made yesterday, a week ago or not a search at all. It can lead to a page with similar items to a previous web page that was visited via a search. But it is never an actual, exact search or web page from either of our travels on the internet. And, it certainly seems random. The item that appears can be from days or weeks ago- or yesterday.

For Example- In the photos, the numbers in the search bar take me to a Google search for a computer part that I did not search for, not know what is. But, a week or so ago, I searched for "IEC 60309 Connectors 30 amp 480 volt 3 Phase 4-C 5-W Pin & Sleeve". With the numbers still in the URL bar, if I tap Enter, the web page that shows up has a computer part with those connectors on it, but no mention of the IEC 60309 connectors that I had searched for previously. (Really smart computer, I guess)

Yesterday, the URL bar had an address that took us to a web site about crystallography. Neither of us have ever visited the site, but a few weeks ago I was reading a page about the crystalline structure of quartz, so the URL item is kinda-sorta related to a previous search. The really goofy thing is that we have searched for & visited dozens of web sites since those searches.

I've tried clearing Safari history and web site data (under Advanced). We've tried turing off search suggestions, too.
I searched and searched on line for Safari operating instructions, Safari Icons, Safari tools, and so forth. I came up empty.

Do any of you recognize what this is? How did we get it? Can it be removed? If it can't be removed, can the items on it be cleared?

Thanks For Helping me figure this out. It seems harmless, but we sure are curious!

Enjoy This Day!
Paul

A) Box & Buttons copy.JPG

B) Tapping The Squares Brings This copy.JPG
 
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The circular buttons, are “undo” and “redo”, these are part of copy and paste optons, which the boxes that appear at the bottom as well. If you have something highlighted, in the address bar box, you will have both options available. If the box is empty, you may have the last thing that was copied to the clipboard.

When you are in this thread, and you select the address bar box, what options become available? Here’s what I get, 126EB2EC-D36F-4ED5-BC45-52BC83530AE0.jpeg ,

Edit: Sorry, I didn’t realize the bottom didn’t show. I’ll look into fixing the image.
 
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PGB1
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Thank You Bob! for the great explanation & for the example.
I must have been accidentally copying things to the clipboard- all the while not knowing it. (I do remember seeing the "Copy" box pop up when I pushed on something too long.)

I experimented around with using the clipboard. It's quite handy. So, instead of "How do I get rid of this box?" I'll go with "This is cool!"

Thanks Again & Enjoy This Day!
Paul
 
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Ok, good to know.

I do think it appeared in iOS 10, maybe ios 9, although I can’t be positive, I’m kind of used to it being there now.
 

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