The search engine behemoth Google is all set to introduce a few major updates with the new version of its Chrome browser, that is Chrome Version 85. The major breakthrough in this version is to slash off the technical parts of the URL. That indicates the new rolling feature adds luxury and comfort to the user interface.
In the new Chrome update, when a user checks on the URL of the website, only the domain name is supposed to be displayed. All the other parts of the URL like the technical SEO part, permalink’s display text would remain hidden to the user. Sounds pretty awesome, right?
Yes, the goal of this update is to make the user experience smooth and understandable to all the non-technical users of the web.
Now all the address bar of the chrome is taking off to look cozy and elegant. Google is specializing in this feature, and that is awaited to be released in the next version of Chrome as according to the reports collected by the Android Police.
The documents collected by the Android Police also state the details on the pre-release testing version of Chrome that changes the appearance and function of the address bar. This kind of testing or experimental feature is usually referred to as ‘flag’ by the in-house Chrome developers.
Whereas Android Police stipulated the main flag called “Omnibox UI Hide Steady-State URL Path, Query and Ref.” This particular flag is supposed to hide all parts of the URL except the domain name. And the additional flags are based on this main flag which reveals the different ways to display the address bar and how it interacts with the chrome users shortly.
Moreover, this feature is kind of opt-in and opt-out. Which means, there is an option to set “Always display the full URL” mode. Also, there is an alternative way to display the URL when hovering the address bar area. This is a small update that was presented with a click before. Now, hovering could view a full URL alternatively.
Adding to the more sophisticated user interface, the feature proposes to hide the full address bar when the user starts interacting or engaging with the specific webpage.
To be apparent in developing this feature, an issue page has been created on the Chromium Bug tracker to trace back the changes/issue logs made by the developers in this project.
Right now, there is no clear evidence of why Google is making this attempt to hide the URL parts. But the change would considerably modify the user’s stance over the browser and its functionality.
The report also quoted that exposing the full URL could give way to phishing and other social engineering issues across the web. Maybe the tech giant is preparing for the defensive mechanism against malicious attacks.
Even now, Chrome hides some parts like WWW/Https, but in the future, even more, components are said to be hushed up with domain name or extension only.
In the last few months Google has introduced various new features with Chrome browser to provide safe and secure browsing experience to users. In 2018 Google made SSL certificate kind of mandatory for website to have a better ranking. Early this year, Google rolled out another update with Chrome disallowing to download any kind of files from websites that are not secured.
Those possible reasons for hiding the URL parts are for security reasons. Sometimes the lengthy URL could pose a threat to determine whether the site is legitimate or not. And there are chances that the trivial parts could hide the crucial elements of the URL.
Secondly, with the competitive edge with Safari and other browsers where it hides some parts of the URL. Google might have come up with the plan.
Let’s wait for the best reason when Google officially rolls out this fresh update publicly!
