Live data from Hacker News

Burying the URL

allenpike.com

101–110 of 376 posts

Re: Burying the URL

#101
I would be upset to have to go through a search engine like Google's to get to sites. I will use a browser that makes it easy to get to the URL; Chrome is currently my favorite, but I would consider switching to FF or Opera if the links went away, simply because I use them for so many things.

I wouldn't mind if all links were the kind that you see in shortening services, though.

Re: Burying the URL

#102

This may be the reason I stop using Chrome even though I was a member of the team for 5 years. I NEED TO EDIT URLs. I need to copy and paste URLs. It was already annoying enough with it's removing of the protocol because sometimes I make a typo, try to edit it and it messes up and removes the protocol forcing me to edit it a 3rd time only after it goes as searches for something. Even as just a user I copy and paste U…

I agree, but for the time being you can still click on the actual button, which will let you view/edit the entire URL.

Re: Burying the URL

#103

This may be the reason I stop using Chrome even though I was a member of the team for 5 years. I NEED TO EDIT URLs. I need to copy and paste URLs. It was already annoying enough with it's removing of the protocol because sometimes I make a typo, try to edit it and it messes up and removes the protocol forcing me to edit it a 3rd time only after it goes as searches for something. Even as just a user I copy and paste U…

How much of this would feel addressed if a button was added to copy the URL to clipboard? Obviously, it would not fix things like being able to manipulate the URL in the field (/page2 to /page3) or get rid of utm_source cruft, so it would still be a net loss.

But would you consider that a tolerable loss, or still too much? (I think I'd say it's still too much, but I am also a web dev and thus a power user.)

Re: Burying the URL

#105
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also gramma is gonna be sad when I give her a URL and she won't know where it goes. It is not clear if they are dumbing the web down for users or just to get people onto Google search.

There's already a usability problem with the address bar: Many people use it to search google instead of entering urls.

I've never understood the claim that the omnibar was a usability problem. It's really only a problem if you have an ideological issue with preferring to search Google... which isn't a usability issue.

Re: Burying the URL

#106
post #93
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's take the automobile analogy further. A browser that doesn't show the exact URL of a page is like a car with a built-in GPS that doesn't show the exact location where it's at. After all, who cares about street addresses? The address is occuplied by a Starbucks and we're in Mountain View, so let's just show a Starbucks logo surrounded by a shape that vaguely looks like an outline of Mountain View. You want to go…

You could argue it's instead like a built-in GPS that doesn't display your exact latitude and longitude - precise information about your location that is interesting, but usually not useful, since you have to take roads/links to actually get from point A to point B.

Most URLs are human-readable enough that I think street addresses make a better analogy.

Latitude/longitude would be more like IP addresses and HTTP headers. They require some technical knowledge to use and understand, but they're still quite human-readable unlike raw GPS signals or ethernet frames.

(As an aside, most GPS units also display the altitude. I live in a mountainous region, so I often make use of this figure.)

Re: Burying the URL

#107

Chrome developer advocate Paul Irish says: this is terrible. From what I can tell only 6 people have been involved in this so far. Going to do my best to stop it. https://twitter.com/paul_irish/status/461737936078123008

Unnecessary powerplay from Paul. And leaking information which is outright insulting to the 6(?) involved. This is a bad reaction for a developer relations guy.

Re: Burying the URL

#108
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also gramma is gonna be sad when I give her a URL and she won't know where it goes. It is not clear if they are dumbing the web down for users or just to get people onto Google search.

There's already a usability problem with the address bar: Many people use it to search google instead of entering urls.

Yeah but at least if you can get them to that bar or at least "Open Location" you can semi-predictably get them to a website where you can get the problem solved or narrowed down.

Once you obscure URLs, web browsers become _impossible to support_. Of course Google doesn't care, because support isn't part of their lexicon.

Re: Burying the URL

#109
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's already a usability problem with the address bar: Many people use it to search google instead of entering urls.

I've never understood the claim that the omnibar was a usability problem. It's really only a problem if you have an ideological issue with preferring to search Google... which isn't a usability issue.

It is confusing because there are these other things (urls) you could put in to the address bar that cause something different to happen from searching google.

Re: Burying the URL

#110

This may be the reason I stop using Chrome even though I was a member of the team for 5 years. I NEED TO EDIT URLs. I need to copy and paste URLs. It was already annoying enough with it's removing of the protocol because sometimes I make a typo, try to edit it and it messes up and removes the protocol forcing me to edit it a 3rd time only after it goes as searches for something. Even as just a user I copy and paste U…

You can disable it by going to chrome://flags/#origin-chip-in-omnibox, change it to Disabled and restart chrome.

Edit: Apparently a useful comment offering a solution to the parent's comment is not HN worthy?

Post reply on HN