Google-chrome – How to get vertical tab bar in Google Chrome working

I know its NOT an answer to your question, but I would nevertheless go with it. Try using firefox nightly build, if you're that sort of person. Okay, it won't open as fast as chrome itself, but its much faster than Fx 3.6 and as fast as chrome for all other tasks. As for the address bar, Fx awesome bar stands up to its name, and is really awesome. You can use tabs to navigate, and I rarely have to type a full address. You just type the first few letters, press tabs and you're done. Whats better is that it also has a much better search functionality than most people think it does, and its actually better than chrome. See here: http://home.iitk.ac.in/~ashishag/writings/smartsearch/smartsearch.php

I have seen this problem and it appears that the "Bookmarks Bar" is the root cause for it. Whenever there is a bookmarks bar, the focus on the address bar is automatic. If you remove the bookmarks bar, the address bar loses focus on a new tab.

Solution: Enable the Bookmarks bar.

Go to Settings->Bookmarks->Show Bookmarks Bar

Windows: Control+Shift+B

OSX: Command+Shift+B