Google Chrome Browser to Remove URL in Future Update – The Tech Giant, Google is working to remove parts of the full address from the URL bar in Chrome Browser. This feature shall hide the full address of the web page, thereby presenting only the domain (for example google.com). When Google began hiding the ‘https://’ or ‘https://www’, it suffered a backlash from the web developers.
According to the documents revealed by Android Police, this feature can come in the next version of Chrome (Chrome Dev 85 / Canary 85). The experimental features in this pre-release version shall modify the browser address bar’s behavior. This feature, according to Chrome developer terms is called “flag”.
What Google is thinking about this setting is not quite clear. To change the Omnibox’s behavior, there are other two flags that can be used. The main flag is Query and Ref Omnibox UI to hide the steady-state URL address path, according to the Android Police, by which all the URL parts, except the domain name, shall be hidden. Check here move from Chrome to Firefox Browser.
The full URL shall be displayed when the mouse hovers over the shortened version. When someone begins to interact with the page, Chrome shall hide the entire address bar. This is another feature that the Tech Giant is working on. There is a piece of clear evidence that these features are being worked on, is a Chromium bug tracker page, where developers have been logging their issues while working on the features.
You can download Chrome Dev and Chrome Canary if you want to try the preview release of Google’s web browser. You may encounter problems, but at the same time, it’s possible to have the release version installed.
Why Google Chrome Browser to Remove URL from the address bar?
Chrome hides the prefix such as ‘HTTP/HTTPS’ or ‘www’. Very soon, this shall be reduced to display the domain name and extension. Why Google might be doing this, there are some possible reasons behind it. Security might be a concern, according to a Google Software Engineer who stated that by displaying the full URL, it might become difficult to determine the legitimacy of a website.
The full address might detract from the domain name – which is a crucial feature to know how secure, a website is. Furthermore, ‘Always show full URLs’ that is already present, when the address bar is right-clicked, shall be supported, as per the Developer. According to the same Chromium Developer, they are conducting qualitative and quantitative research in order to identify malicious websites, accurately.
It’s quite common for the current browsers of the present day to hide the full URL paths. Google may also be working on this update to bring its browser with the new look and feel.
Safari doesn’t hide the full address bar but hides the URL path when a user interacts with a page. When it comes to Safari, full URLs are not accessible, but to reveal it fully, users have to click on the address bar.
To see the full version, in Chrome 85, users will be able to hover over the address bar. Regarding the new version of Chrome 85, Google has not acknowledged it. Maybe, they shall give a statement when this version rolls out publicly.
