10 years ago, on this date, Google (Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL)) ushered in a hero, with the red-yellow-green cape; Google Chrome!
Chrome recently celebrated the ten years of its sheer awesome existence and apparently, Google cannot tuck away its hysteria to commemorate the day.
Google is rolling out a pretty big update to the browser. From making auto-updates in-rage, to promote HTTPS web encryption, it seems like the Chrome team is at beck and call, anytime any big problem raises its head. Apparently, the Chrome thinktank is hammering away at one extremely dubious issue; rethinking URLs!
URL – Heading the One-Way Ticket Road!
Talking about the days gone by, one only had “.com”. To the fore, “.net” and “.org” were alternatives to the conventional “.com” and were still offbeat. However, today the fad of adding quirkier names is dead set on and alike bells and whistles, there come referral trail and UTM strings too!
This gives rise to a two-pronged dilemma – One, it’s more of a hodge-podge for users with long referral keys. Second, it works as one golden opportunity for all offbase cyber-criminals, forever, on a watch out to scam potential users. With this initiative, Google wants to put the lid on possible risks by altering ways on how people access web address.
“They’re hard to read, it’s hard to know which part of them is supposed to be trusted, and in general I don’t think URLs are working as a good way to convey site identity, So we want to move toward a place where web identity is understandable by everyone . We want to challenge how URLs should be displayed and question it as we’re figuring out the right way to convey identity.” Adrienne Porter Felt, engineering manager at Google Chrome.
According to a report by Wired, the Google Chrome team still hasn’t been able to draw a feasible conclusion to the problem statement regarding URLs. In all its likelihood, the team is still divided on the apt solution to propose. However, to all appearances, the ideal solution will be pulled off as more secure and convenient for users.
Rethinking URLs: A Controversial Initiative?
. “I don’t know what this will look like, because it’s an active discussion in the team right now. But I do know that whatever we propose is going to be controversial. That’s one of the challenges with a really old and open and sprawling platform. Change will be controversial whatever form it takes”, Adrienne Porter Felt.
This is not Google’s first foray into URL Security space. In 2014, Chrome team tried out a formatting feature called the “origin chip”, which displayed the domain names of sites. This modification helped users to ensure the forum they actually were surfing through. To access the full URL, one could easily click the chip, which came quite handy, in order to display the whole URL bar.
This experiment baffled both the admirers as well as the critics. Making web identity straightforward, didn’t get easy acceptance worldwide and hence, Google had to bring down a curtain on the chip rollout.
As of now, this controversial experiment striving for a better solution is sure to make its grand entry in the Chrome space. However, what remains behind the curtain is the way URL will be replaced. To put forth in simpler words, the Chrome thinktank hasn’t yet given any thoughts on the climax of such a grand teaser!
