Chrome Canary strips URLS

[333]

Interesting development. If it goes mainstream..not so sure about how this will effect keyword relevance at the 2nd level. i.e /keyword/index.html -

"Google says goodbye to URLs in new Chrome Canary update."

http://venturebeat.com/2014/05/01/google-says-goodbye-to-urls-in-new-chrome-canary-update/

"Burying the URL"

http://www.allenpike.com/2014/burying-the-url/

"This is a new UI experiment that's deployed to a small fraction of users. We're looking at a few key metrics to see if this change is a net positive for Chrome users. (I imagine it may help defend against phishing)."

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7678580

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7677898

 

[nt81]

Interdasting.

This may be where the new shiny gTLD's come into their own...

 

[auAppraisals]

Hmmm...I didn't like the sound of this when I first heard it, but, the more I think about it, the more I ask myself "how often do I actually look at the address bar in a day?". Not often, I've decided. Presumably, you'll still be able to type the domain name or URL into the bar to navigate, you just won't see the full address detail of the page you're looking at?

 

[nt81]

Its easy to say that as a user.

As a developer, unless the WHOLE system of how sites/pages are changed to internal addressing, this is going to cause issues.

You may not want to see mydomain.com.au/page=12 but I can assure you that is (for now) just as important as your address and number on your letterbox. Imagine a world without letter box numbers, IP addresses. Now that is a metaphor.

 

[Ash]

I imagine breadcrumbs would become infinitely more important?

 

[nt81]

Absolutely. But I think that Facebook / Apple / Google are betting on Apps ruling the future. That is the only reason that I could see that would benefit in the long run.

URLs are also used for search engines, so unless there is some new form of addressing / navigation to be invented, I will assume that URL's will still exist from a development / navigation / searching perspective.

If you read into it though, SPAM would be the biggest loser in all of this in an App driven world.

 

[auAppraisals]

You can still access the URL, and you can still use it to navigate to specific pages, you just won't see the full URL in the address bar all the time.
I don't see how this changes how you'd develop sites or navigation or URLs? Browsers, etc, will still need unique addresses to access specific pages/content, they just won't be as prominent.

 

[auAppraisals]

Nothing's changed?

You may not want to see mydomain.com.au/page=12 but I can assure you that is (for now) just as important as your address and number on your letterbox. Imagine a world without letter box numbers, IP addresses. Now that is a metaphor.

mydomain.com.au/page=12 will still go to the same page. All your links will still point to this URL, and you can still type this into the address bar to get to the bar. Presumably, Google will still use the URL as some measure of what the page is about, too.

The only thing that will change is that you'll just see a 'chip' next to the address bar with "mydomain.com.au", and not the full URL.

 

[nt81]

That will be handy for scammers

INSERT-BANK-NAME-HERE.com.au/scam.php?givemeallyourmoney=true

=

INSERT-BANK-NAME-HERE.com.au

 

[auAppraisals]

That will be handy for scammers

INSERT-BANK-NAME-HERE.com.au/scam.php?givemeallyourmoney=true

=

INSERT-BANK-NAME-HERE.com.au

I would say the opposite. Instead of scammers benefiting from using:

scamsite.com/westpac.com.au/really-secure-page.php

All the browser will see is:

scamsite.com

So your aging relatives (who are particularly at risk from scamming) won't see any reference to 'Westpac.com.au' or whatever bank they're with.

 

[nt81]

Fantastic...

The web gets dumber, again.

 

[auAppraisals]

I was initially sceptical, but after reading up a bit, I realised these changes won't affect my use of the Internet in any way, at least as I understand them. I won't see the full URL unless I go looking for it, but does that really matter?

I would imagine most people don't look at the address bar once they're clicking between links - doesn't this disappear automatically on mobile browsers, anyway? - but many do use it to type-in domain names when they're known, and they will still be able to do this even if this change is widely adopted.