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Google Resumes its Senseless Attack on the URL Bar, Hides Full Addresses on Chrome 85

posted by chromas on Monday June 15 2020, @10:24AM   Printer-friendly
from the AOL dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

https://www.androidpolice.com/2020/06/12/google-resumes-its-senseless-attack-on-the-url-bar-hides-full-addresses-on-chrome-canary/

Google has tried on and off for years to hide full URLs in Chrome's address bar, because apparently long web addresses are scary and evil. Despite the public backlash that came after every previous attempt, Google is pressing on with new plans to hide all parts of web addresses except the domain name.

A few new feature flags have appeared in Chrome's Dev and Canary channels (V85), which modify the appearance and behavior of web addresses in the address bar. The main flag is called "Omnibox UI Hide Steady-State URL Path, Query, and Ref" which hides everything in the current web address except the domain name. For example, "https://www.androidpolice.com/2020/06/07/lenovo-ideapad-flex-5-chromebook-review/" is simply displayed as "androidpolice.com."

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 15 2020, @01:49PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 15 2020, @01:49PM (#1008125)

    What they display is annoying, but not life changing, except maybe for nerds who peek and poke into things.

    That they give you the whole/exact/ungoogalized url if you click, copy and paste, or bookmark is critical.

    If they manage to hide/own/control that, then it puts them in the position to be an unnecessary central gatekeeper.
    (Unnecessary because it breaks the idea of url without adding value to the users. But maybe critical to their business/power/not-no-evil grand plan.)

    Make it stop, indeed.