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Google adds experimental setting to hide full URLs in Chrome 85 address bar

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Re: Google adds experimental setting to hide full URLs in Chrome 85 address bar

#481

Post by whoisthemachine »

wyattpeak wrote: post #417
sorenjan wrote: post #332

I actually wouldn't mind if the URL bar was replaced with a breadcrumb bar on some sites, like news and forums. Imagine something like Example.com > Worldnews > 2020 > 06 > 14 > Big aquatic monster spotted outside of Tokyo or forum.example.com > Sport > Football > Spain > Real Madrid It could then work like in Explorer in Windows 10, where you can press one of the breadcrumb separators and see a menu with siblings, o…

I really dislike any attempt to modify strings like this. I find it invariably causes problems in edge cases. What if a site handles slashes differently to how Google expects? Where do GET arguments go? What if I want to modify the URL? Breadcrumbs are great when each part is navigable, but does example.com/worldnews/2020/06 actually lead anywhere, or is it an invalid address for the site? I have absolutely no intere…

Your arguments are definitely salient.

However, I think there is something to this idea - a breadcrumb style approach by default in Chrome would encourage developers to use paths in more standard ways that refer to resources, not heavy parameter coupling. As you noted, there are technical barriers to implementing this solution, which might encourage some other good things - servers providing resource discovery so that the browser can understand valid paths when visiting a site.

Re: Google adds experimental setting to hide full URLs in Chrome 85 address bar

#482

Post by bavell »

qwertox wrote: post #416
butz wrote: post #62

While this might be useful for a casual user, hidden URLs are a huge problem for web developers. Asking for a screenshot from client is not enough, now I'll have to provide additional instructions how to copy/paste full URL when reporting issues. Not to mention all possible problems with misconfigured servers when www and www-less domains lead to same website, but some script refuses to work on one of those. While it…

I'm already annoyed by the hassle it has become to copy a substring of the URL into the clipboard, due to the schemes being hidden. Nothing has been won by hiding http(s):// as well as the www subdomain.

Even when the scheme is visible I have problems copying a URL substring. Chrome always wants to select the ENTIRE URL instead of just the subpath I'm double-clicking... endlessly frustrating >:(

Re: Google adds experimental setting to hide full URLs in Chrome 85 address bar

#483

Post by cryptica »

neurostimulant wrote: post #243
cryptica wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Passwords and bookmarks are in Chrome. That's the main point of friction. But I do re-evaluate Firefox from time to time. So far there has often been small things which made me reluctant. I think this feature is important enough for me to consider switching this time.

You can import your passwords into a 3rd party password manager and enjoy having them available on any devices and browsers supported by the password manager. As for bookmark, firefox should be able to import chrome bookmark. It can even import saved passwords and cookies so your active session is preserved.

I don't like to trust too many entities with my passwords. You can't avoid having to trust the browser maker but adding another third party password manager to the mix would just make me twice as vulnerable for no good reason.

Re: Google adds experimental setting to hide full URLs in Chrome 85 address bar

#484

Post by superkuh »

shadowgovt wrote: post #405
ahmedfromtunis wrote: post #87

If their goal is really to help detect fraudulent sites (the sorts of google.com.notahacker.tk), they can just show the domain in a more prominent way -- they're already deemphasizing the part of the URL after the domain name anyway. This is clearly not their motive. What Google is trying to do here is to drift the web from its most iconic components: the URL. This is the biggest threat to the web that we loved for s…

The URL bar takes up a huge amount of screen real estate and is a piece of information that the user almost never needs once they have confirmed they navigated successfully to the desired page. Developers are a special case user and capable of handling advanced UIs that hide information until it is needed. It's iconic but it's a UI space resource hog. To improve browser experience, sometimes one has to be willing to…

To improve browser experience all you have to do is use a computer that doesn't suck. The fact that your primary browser is on a tiny phone display is a problem with phones, not with browsers. Browser for phones can evolve to match the disabled nature of their device's but lets hope such gimpings don't filter back into actual desktop computers.

Re: Google adds experimental setting to hide full URLs in Chrome 85 address bar

#485

Post by jessaustin »

sorenjan wrote: post #332

I actually wouldn't mind if the URL bar was replaced with a breadcrumb bar on some sites, like news and forums. Imagine something like Example.com > Worldnews > 2020 > 06 > 14 > Big aquatic monster spotted outside of Tokyo or forum.example.com > Sport > Football > Spain > Real Madrid It could then work like in Explorer in Windows 10, where you can press one of the breadcrumb separators and see a menu with siblings, o…

Very few URLs are perfectly hierarchical in a way that would work with this scheme. For example, look at the URL of this page you're reading now.

Re: Google adds experimental setting to hide full URLs in Chrome 85 address bar

#486

Post by satyrnein »

Jedd wrote: post #445
sorenjan wrote: post #332

I actually wouldn't mind if the URL bar was replaced with a breadcrumb bar on some sites, like news and forums. Imagine something like Example.com > Worldnews > 2020 > 06 > 14 > Big aquatic monster spotted outside of Tokyo or forum.example.com > Sport > Football > Spain > Real Madrid It could then work like in Explorer in Windows 10, where you can press one of the breadcrumb separators and see a menu with siblings, o…

> I actually wouldn't mind if the URL bar was replaced with a breadcrumb bar on some sites ... Which sites? Anyway, almost everyone else would mind. Especially if there was no option to revert to normal behaviour. > It could then work like in Explorer in Windows 10, ... That sounds like the worst of both worlds. If people want Explorer in Windows 10 behaviour - can't they just run Explorer in Windows 10? If people wa…

For myself (and I'd wager most people), I want to clear the URL and go to a totally different URL much more often than I want to manually manipulate the URL I'm currently on, so I like the change in default. Many casual users probably didn't even know a quick way to select the whole URL when it wasn't the default.

Re: Google adds experimental setting to hide full URLs in Chrome 85 address bar

#487

Post by vntok »

mysterydip wrote: post #453
shadowgovt wrote: post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most users need to care about that as much as they need to care about whether the page is being vended from a fresh server response or local cache.

would you care if you went to mybank.com.sketchysite.us?

A better comparison would be mybank.com/logmein vs mybank.com/login vs mybank.com/l.jx?s=AU8NE6FX5IKMD2

And no, users do not need to care the slightest whether they go to the first, second or 3rd URL. What they care about is that they are entering their sensitive information on mybank.com's domain and not a russian counterpart, that's it.

Re: Google adds experimental setting to hide full URLs in Chrome 85 address bar

#488

Post by polotics »

polotics wrote: post #189
ahmedfromtunis wrote: post #87

If their goal is really to help detect fraudulent sites (the sorts of google.com.notahacker.tk), they can just show the domain in a more prominent way -- they're already deemphasizing the part of the URL after the domain name anyway. This is clearly not their motive. What Google is trying to do here is to drift the web from its most iconic components: the URL. This is the biggest threat to the web that we loved for s…

Word! Frankly at this point I'm even starting to think that the whole weird "SJW" angle of this thread is also disingenuous and taking us away from the boiling frog death of the Internet, replaced by AMPed up centralized comoditization of users, with death to all liberty and openness.

In the meantime the post that used the term SJW has disappeared. Oh well.

Re: Google adds experimental setting to hide full URLs in Chrome 85 address bar

#489

Post by amluto »

zzzcpan wrote: post #350
amluto wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a qualitative difference between your examples and “blacklist”. Dark mode is about color. The color black is a color. Light mode is a color’s brightness. A widely used white background is a color. I don’t think any reasonable person objects to using terms about color to refer to colors. Black objects are black, red objects are red, etc. But “blacklist” is entirely different. “Blacklist” uses a color term to…

Black is also not a color, but the light not being reflected or emitted or let through. Hence the blacklist, it doesn't need to have judgement or historically loaded meaning.

I don’t see your point. Blue is not a color. It’s just a failure of red or green light to be let through.

Re: Google adds experimental setting to hide full URLs in Chrome 85 address bar

#490

Post by satyrnein »

mysterydip wrote: post #453
shadowgovt wrote: post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most users need to care about that as much as they need to care about whether the page is being vended from a fresh server response or local cache.

would you care if you went to mybank.com.sketchysite.us?

Isn't that the point of this change, only showing the domain to prevent phishing?
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