Google is Messing with the Address Bar Again - New Experiment Hides URL Path

[upnorth]

Content source

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/06/google-is-messing-with-the-address-bar-again-new-experiment-hides-url-path/

It looks like Google is trying to mess with the URL bar again. As spotted by Android Police, new flags in the developer versions of the popular browser now want to hide the URL path. So for an article like this one, instead of "Google is messing with the address bar again—new experiment hides URL path," the address bar would show "arstechnica.com."

For now, the feature isn't on by default. You have to have the developer versions of Chrome and need to dig into chrome://flags to enable the feature, which is called "Omnibox UI Hide Steady-State URL Path, Query, and Ref." Everything in Chrome://flags is an experiment, but most Chrome changes land here first before they are rolled out to stable versions.

Google is messing with the address bar again—new experiment hides URL path

New address-bar tweak would show only the domain name instead of the page URL.

arstechnica.com

 

[CyberTech]

Thats a bad idea tbh i would like to know/see URL path when i visit any website

 

[enaph]

What is the problem with address bars nowadays?
First Mozilla with their unsolicited change to the size of the bar, now this

 

[Ink]

Looks clean.

 

[Cortex]

Thats a bad idea tbh i would like to know/see URL path when i visit any website

Agree with you there !

 

[Kamer]

I don't mind the "simplification" of software to make it more like an appliance. But I do mind forcing every
one to have this with no easy options to change it.

 

[ForgottenSeer 85179]

This isn't the first step form Google.

They also want remove it completely because of malicious sites (e.g. typo can redirect to wrong site). Even if I don't fully agree I get their point.
But I don't know how they will do that. From user side it makes no difference or even sense if full URL is displayed or not. They don't care.

Anyway I guess this give tracking companies a new way for adding/ hidden easily URL ID tracking parameters

 

[CyberTech]

Meh..

Google is experimenting with showing domain names only in Chrome’s address bar instead of full URLs. The feature will be tested in the upcoming Chrome 86 release, with Google hoping the change could protect users against scams and phishing attacks using misleading URLs.

Domain names and URLs are one of of the most basic forms of web security we have, letting us quickly know where we are online. Sometimes, though, they can be used to mislead. Hackers and scammers often create fake websites that look plausible by using URLs with typos (twittter.com) unfamiliar subdomains (yourbank.sign-in.info) or hyphenated domains (secure-gmail.com).

Unsuspecting users then visit these URLs thinking they belong to legitimate companies before being tricked into giving away their credentials.

see the gif:

Google is testing domain-only URLs in Chrome to help foil scams and phishing

Making your visit to fakebook.com more obvious

www.theverge.com