Browser URL Hiding

Discussions criticize browsers for hiding or dimming full URLs in the address bar, arguing it reduces user awareness, increases phishing risks, and hinders learning, while some support it for better UX and security.

📉 Falling 0.3x Security
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20
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Top Authors
#6056
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Keywords

bankofamerica.com appleinsider.com DNS UX URI THE AMP facebook.com WWW HTTP url urls hiding users user bar address bar address hide google

Sample Comments

tarboreus Sep 6, 2018 View on HN

People don't understand URLs because we hid them from people. Let's solve the problem by completely hiding the URLs!

mog_dev Nov 15, 2023 View on HN

I don't understand how people can accept the browser hiding the URL.

yread Jul 21, 2011 View on HN

Who cares about urls? My browser hides everything except the domain anyway

feanaro Nov 24, 2020 View on HN

Please let's not help with the efforts to hide the URL by spreading this sentiment. It's a misguided move that will only make users more helpless and the web more mysterious for them.I'm increasingly encountering users that have trouble understanding that they should copy the URL to someone if they want to share a web page with them. Humans are logical creatures: if they see a part of the system that is constant, they will deduce that it could not have had an impact on the part

48309248302 Jan 30, 2019 View on HN

Showing URLs is essential. Google isn't able to determine what sites are safe. You can test it by signing up for a lot of Google Alerts. I get fed many shady URLs in Google Alerts and have clicked on some of them accidentally because the URLs aren't displayed in the emails anymore. If the URLs had been clearly displayed, I wouldn't have clicked on them.A tool that warns people when something appears wrong with a URL would be useful, but hiding URLs from users would be a terribl

manigandham Mar 3, 2022 View on HN

Why would people not care that browsing URLs work well?

bowsamic Oct 25, 2024 View on HN

No end user understands URLs this way. Unless Firefox teaches them this, then this is nonsense

aouk Jan 30, 2019 View on HN

since the problem is with "careless" users when it comes to "noticing" or "reading" a URL, which have a position in the screen that I suppose most users know by now, then, I think that the solution should be designed around UI/UX principles, since one of the purposes of UI/UX (correct me if i am wrong) is to let and help the user "read" and "notice" every bit of information using every pixel in the screen.if the goal is to help the u

eterm May 25, 2016 View on HN

Non-power users don't look at at the URL, they certainly don't type them by hand.

peterwwillis Sep 6, 2018 View on HN

What if the user sees "Wik1pedia.org/wiki/Canada"? Or "аррӏе.com"?Hiding random parts of the address isn't going to make browsing the web better. The main purpose of URLs is for hyperlinks, not as a highly intuitive user interface. Users who don't know how URLs work don't care what is up there. They only care that what they are looking at is what they expect, and a way to get to where they want to go. And that's a complicated problem.The UR