Google removes www and https from address bar in Chrome 76

The Chrome browser no longer shows www or https in the address bar from the most recent version. The company wants to make the user interface of the browser simpler. If users want to see the subdomains, they must first click through.

The changes are in Chrome 76, the most recent version of the browser. It contains subdomains such as www. can no longer be seen, although the mobile announcement m. will still exist. Google also hides https://, but if a website does not use ssl, a warning still appears that the website may be unsafe. Users can still see the full domain if they double click in the address bar on the desktop. You only need to do this once on mobile devices.

It is not the first time that Google has hidden the subdomain. The company already did that in September last year in Chrome 69. However, this came with a lot of criticism from users, after which Google decided to withdraw the design. Even now, users are not satisfied, according to reactions to the changelog in which the change is announced. “You call www a special case, but it is valuable and important information,” writes one user.

Google has developed an extension that allows users to see which subdomain is being used.