As an emacs user I map "C-p" "C-n" for history search in bash

In .inputrc

  "\C-p": history-search-backward
  "\C-n": history-search-forward

Also I found the following settings to be very useful:

  # List the possible completions when Tab is pressed
  set show-all-if-ambiguous on
  #tab complete without needing to get the case right
  set completion-ignore-case on