Apple has confirmed to Pocket-lint that after years of waiting, its desktop browser, Safari, will be getting a single unified search and URL bar in the future.

"There is no longer two fields, there is just one that you type into, either a URL or a search term." Apple tells Pocket-lint.

The new feature - which has been available in competing browsers from Firefox and Google's Chrome - will be rolled out in the new version of Safari that will be launched alongside the next version of Apple's operating system OS X Mountain Lion in the summer.

The new OS, released as a developer preview on Thursday 16 February, will bring with it more than 100 features, but Safari users are likely to get really excited about this small change. 

Until Mountain Lion is released, users who want to a unified search can do so with the help of a third party plugin called Safari Omnibar.

On installing the unofficial Safari bolt-on, users can trick the current browser into ditching the two separate boxes at the top of the browser window in favour of one single one.

However, it's worth pointing out that the plugin modifies Safari in a way it wasn't designed for.

The new feature is available in the new version of Apple OS X Mountain Lion. Apple has told Pocket-lint that the new features and new operating system, Apple Mac OS X Mountain Lion, will be out in the summer. Developers who want to get started with the new features can do so via the Apple Mac OS X Mountain Lion developer preview out on Thursday 16 February. 

- For more news on the latest from OS X Mountain Lion check out our dedicated Mac OS X homepage.