Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL; DR
- Google has given up on its plans to hide all Chrome addresses.
- The planned change would have turned
androidauthority.com/XXXXin onlyandroidauthority.comin the Chrome Omnibar. - Google thought this change would improve security, but determined that it wasn’t.
Google has been trying to fix URLs for years. Google has made it very clear that it doesn’t like URLs, especially very long ones. In Chrome as it is today, Google is already hiding those https:// Part of the urls to clean them up a bit.
However, Google wanted to go further with Chrome addresses. It actually wanted to hide everything that came after that .com in one address, regardless of which page you are on. For example, the address of this article is https://www.androidauthority.com/chrome-addresses-hidden-1234594/ but if it were up to google it would seem fair to you androidauthority.com in the omnibar. If you had visited another page, it would have been displayed the same way.
Connected: Safari vs Chrome: Which Browser Should You Use On Your Mac?
Of course, when you click the url it will show it in its full form, just like it did with the today https:// Portion.
Google’s reasoning behind this was that it might help with security. It tested this change with Chrome’s Canary and Beta channels to see if it would “help users better identify malicious websites.”
Well, it turns out it wasn’t. Google has this in the latest Chromium bug list (h / t 9to5Google):
Delete the simplified domain test. This test didn’t move any relevant safety metrics, so we won’t start it. 🙁
We’re not entirely sure why they made a sad face there. Most people are probably pretty happy that this change isn’t happening.
