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Chrome May Drop the URL Bar
An anonymous reader writes "There isn't much Google can still eliminate from the browser's interface. Yet Google appears to be considering a drastic step to free up space in the UI: It may simply kill the URL bar. Instead of showing the URL bar all the time, it may be hidden within tabs. There are some other features coming as well. For example, Google will allow users to be logged into different Google accounts at the same time, as long as you use those accounts in different windows."
I guess the "Really Stupid Idea Department" really does exist because I can only see dropping the address bar as a time-losing feature. In Opera I have two horizontal bars, one for the menu and one for everything else (address, navigation, other buttons). Just make your UI extremely configurable, like Opera's, and you have no problems. I have my tabs stacked vertically on the left hand side. I can have more than 50 tabs visible, this way, with no downside.
Sounds like a GREAT way to make phishing attempts easier
I bet phishers will love this feature...
Sorry but I don't like searching for every single thing when I already know the address. This is just dumb. Far too much emphasis place on searching these days. I rarely need to search anymore as I've been online long enough to basically know where most of the important stuff is.
Just an attempt to generate hits for google here. I dumped Chrome for Firefox the other day for reasons like this. Google controls enough, it's time to take them down a notch. They make some cool stuff but I'm not willing to tie so much into one company.
Eh, nowadays people just type what they want in the Google Search bar, remember the Facebook login debacle?
On the other hand, URLs are going back to the AOL keyword origins anyway, look at this domains: http://nyti.ms/, http://flic.kr/, http://youtu.be/ . Yes, they're real. And yes, I hate them.
What time is it/will be over there? Check with my iPhone app!
You wouldn't believe how many people actually browse that way. I have seen my fair share of people that type URLs in the searchfield of their google homepage.
Mozilla and Google both seem to be on a crusade to completely fuck up their browsers and make them as shitty and useless as possible. I just don't get their mindset of constantly changing things, removing things, adding things, not to make them better, but to simply make them different. It makes sense for commercial products, whether it's Windows, automobiles or toothpaste, where you have to constantly get people to buy the latest version of your product in order to maintain your revenue stream. But for a product that is given away for free, it makes no sense.
And that's probably the reason Google thinks it's a great idea. If you just search instead of using the URL bar, you're feeding their core business.
Hell, I can imagine them going through all the trouble of maintaining the Chrome browser *just for that*. Nobody should use the URL bar again! In 10 years nobody will even remember what it was.
I don't believe in time. It's a grand conspiracy designed to sell watches.
Chrome validates sites for you, and i guess the assumption must be that it is better than the average user at it. That is probably true when you consider that phishing only works because people don't understand URLs.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
First, they took away bookmarks. Then, they took away the menu bar. Then, they took away the status bar. Then, they took away the URL bar. Are they just going to continue taking things away for my own good? As a web developer, I find Chrome infuriating, and I'm not the least bit happy that Firefox is following in these footsteps. If you want to survive on the Internet, there are simply things you MUST know. That's why these bars exist, damn it. Why is anyone in this thread finding ways to justify this behavior? I thought this was the land of the geeks and the purveyors of freedom. Why would anyone justify taking away a feature that's been around for over a decade and actually works?