Google has tried over the years to hide URLs from its address bar, especially those that appear to be too long. Something that the community has never supported much since it is just an aesthetic option that removes a basic functionality from the browser.
However, Google continues its struggle to try to remove the entire address, except the domain name.
Google wants to hide the URL from the address bar in Chrome
Therefore, new feature flags have appeared in the Dev and Canary versions of Google Chrome (v85), which in turn modify the appearance and behavior of the browser’s address bar.
That said, the main flag is called “Omnibox UI Hide Steady-State URL Path, Query, and Ref”, being able to hide the URL from everything except the domain. For example, this page would be just like “TechVaz.com”, instead of “https://techvaz.com google-wants-to-hide-the-url-from-the-address-bar-in-chrome”.
In addition to this, we have two other flags that have an impact on this functionality, since one causes the browser to show the URL in its entirety if it passes with the mouse over the bar. While another one keeps the address hidden until it starts interacting with the page.
Why hide the URL?
According to Google, having a URL that is too big can cause some confusion in people’s minds, as some users associate large links with fake pages. However, all of this may be related to the fact that Google has more to gain from keeping people on their own pages. As an example, what the company already does with its AMP project. Where it already changes the page address, to hide the fact that the pages are hosted by itself.
If you don’t know, when you open links through Google News and similar projects, the pages are almost always AMP. That is, despite reading content from sites like TechVaz.com, it is on Google’s servers.
Furthermore, what do you think about all this? Share your opinion with us in the comments below.
