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

Re:Google adds experimental setting to hide full URLs in Chr... by crazygringo on Sunday June 14, 2020 @12:16PM (#23518890)

Safari has been this way since 2014. I've never seen any pushback on Apple doing it over the past six years.

It's genuinely a benefit for the vast, vast majority of users, where the only important piece of information really is the domain name, to check which site you're actually on. And for more info, you can just click. Copying the URL becomes no more difficult.

The URL path beyond the domain is as useful to most people as an IP address, in other words not at all -- it's just noise. And displaying noise is bad UX. Pretty much only website developers and administrators and SEO people care about the full URL. Granted, there are a lot of those people here on HN, so I understand the pushback, but we're not most users.

But at the end of the day, I don't understand why people seem totally fine with Safari doing this, but not Google?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Google adds experimental setting to hide full URLs in Chr... by on_and_off on Sunday June 14, 2020 @12:57PM (#23519271)

As long as you see the full url when you hover/click on the bar, I am all for it as well.

If find some of reactions on this ridiculously hyperbolic "biggest attack on the web in years" ? seriously ?

I get it, Google is a gigantic monster that does not necessarily act in its users best interests, but that does not mean we need to bring the pitchfork each time they launch an app update.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Google adds experimental setting to hide full URLs in Chr... by hobofan on Monday June 15, 2020 @03:36AM (#23524801)

If recent history with AMP has shown anything, it is that yes, we need to bring our pitchforks every time.

And also precisely because of AMP, this might be a very dangerous step towards blurring the lines between original and AMP pages.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Google adds experimental setting to hide full URLs in Chr... by dhms on Sunday June 14, 2020 @06:40PM (#23522004)

On that note, I noticed recently that Google search result links (on Firefox?) get rewritten. That is, you see the actual page URL when you hover over the link, but it's changed to their own redirect URL as soon as you click it.

I'm sure they've always been tracking these search result clicks, but I think this is a somewhat new behavior, and I find it highly deceiving.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Google adds experimental setting to hide full URLs in Chr... by propogandist on Sunday June 14, 2020 @11:28PM (#23523481)

Chrome sends back your click 'behind the scenes', whereas Firefox does not, so Google forces you to click through their link so they can track your activity (and if you hit the back button, you also jump through their redirect)

Ublock Origin can block this behavior. Here's a posting with links to more resources on hyperlink-auditig

https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Dashboard:-Settings#d...

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Google adds experimental setting to hide full URLs in Chr... by karmakaze on Sunday June 14, 2020 @12:21PM (#23518925)

The people who use Safari is exactly the demographic that this change targets. Chrome users includes most developers who are the ones to complain.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Google adds experimental setting to hide full URLs in Chr... by amerine on Sunday June 14, 2020 @12:36PM (#23519068)

I’m a developer. I use safari/WebKit for 95% of my browsing. You can enable the full address among a bunch of other excellent developer settings and move on with life with a browser that works great.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Google adds experimental setting to hide full URLs in Chr... by soared on Sunday June 14, 2020 @12:48PM (#23519180)

Developers are <1% of users - anything outside of dev tools is not changed with them in mind.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Google adds experimental setting to hide full URLs in Chr... by divbzero on Sunday June 14, 2020 @03:02PM (#23520340)

I’m in favor of full URL, but frankly didn’t notice until just now that I haven’t enabled Safari’s Show full website address preference.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Google adds experimental setting to hide full URLs in Chr... by feanaro on Tuesday June 16, 2020 @04:35AM (#23537041)

I strongly disagree. Ordinary users I interact with either understand the basic concept of the URL or understand it after an initial explanation. It becomes empowering to them in ways I often do not anticipate.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Google adds experimental setting to hide full URLs in Chr... by chooseaname on Sunday June 14, 2020 @12:56PM (#23519255)

If I recall there was some grumbling, but Apple being Apple, they do what they want.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Google adds experimental setting to hide full URLs in Chr... by tmpz22 on Sunday June 14, 2020 @03:04PM (#23520358)

But why can't this be a toggle or user setting like in Safari? Why is it a 1-true-google-way of doing things when clearly there are users who want to keep it (even if its just web developers)?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Google adds experimental setting to hide full URLs in Chr... by crazygringo on Sunday June 14, 2020 @05:26PM (#23521539)

How do you know it won't be a toggle?

Right now it is a setting to enable in Chrome.

What makes you think that once it becomes default, the switch won't remain to be able to turn it off?

Chrome is built by developers. Presumably, they pay attention to what developers need from it. Which is why their debugging tools overall are so amazing.

Perhaps you should withold criticism of what you assume they'll do until they, you know, actually do it.

[ Parent | on HN ]