host/domain name is way to overabused, people should be using info resouce to find the site they are looking for. This way chrome stepped in the right direction moving people away from domains. There can be other software/internet constructs to navigate to right result, domain names are just vanity plates. It helps it if it easier to type the domain up but only for maybe top 10 sites that you use. Those sites are already there and are well known. for the rest autocomplete, bookmarks and history are used.
what i have been noticing my redirect to search on unknown domain names has been failing more and more, cause is that there are too many domains other so if I type "domain names dog", browser can't send me to google anymore to find if there are domain names .dog, I just get host not found error. Granted this is not how most users use firefox host tab. However it is clear case where corporate greed breaks
organically grown infrastructure, in our office we use 8.8.8.8 and thats how I know about it.