Q: Safari ceased auto-focusing on address bar after opening a new tab

The issue has just appeared out of the blue (nothing prior of note that I can remember happening to OS X or Safari).

I know this may sound like a minor issue, but any heavy Safari user would agree such quirk would be bloody annoying.

I'm running latest public version of El Capitan (10.11.4) on an rMPB and an iMac (both sit in the same local network, on both machines I am the only user), and the issue seems to have appeared on both devices more or less simultaneously.

No beta updates were applied, all system updates were installed via official Apple App Store.

• I've tried resetting Safari Preferences to open new tabs as an Empty page (as some users suggested before), but that achieved nothing. Also, tried disabling all extensions and disallowing Internet plug-ins completely.

• The problem persists when logging in as a Guest and when restarting the system under safe boot.

This phenomenon has never ever occurred to me before.

If anyone has suggestions on how to tackle this problem, I'd be very grateful for restoring smoothness to my workflow.

Thanks in advance.

– Alex.