Google wants to get rid of URLs but doesn’t know what to use instead

Re:Google wants to get rid of URLs but doesn’t know what to ... by zimbatm on Thursday September 06, 2018 @11:52AM (#17927114)

URLs are useless for normal people, normal people don't know what URLs are. They don't have the time for learning what it means. If they want to access a website they will Google for it and click on the first result and don't look at the address bar. As a consequence of that they are easy phishing targets, just setup a domain that looks more or less legit and you're good.

Unfortunately the easy solution to that seems to be more walled gardens. I'm pretty sure we'll start seeing Google-certified websites. Registering your website with the Google Search Console will start to become mandatory to appear in the top results. Or implement AMP.

So I'm with you but I think it's important to understand that URLs are broken for most people. When you see a perfectly legible piece of text, their brain is automatically blurring it like some piece of flesh in a Japanese Hentai.

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Re:Google wants to get rid of URLs but doesn’t know what to ... by krapp on Thursday September 06, 2018 @02:27PM (#17928313)

>URLs are useless for normal people, normal people don't know what URLs are.

This is a truism, but I'm not certain it's true. Is there actual data to back this up? What definition of "normal" is being used here.. the average person using the internet, or non-technically trained people?

The web has been around for decades now, and everyone including my nearly 70 year old mother uses it, and URLs have been pretty ubiquitous for a long time. Not knowing what a URL is seems about as likely as not knowing what a TV channel is, or that they have a bank account number.

It seems more likely to me that normal people do know what they are, but find avoiding them to be more convenient than using them.

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