In Chrome 86, Google starts testing with hiding prefixes in url bar

Google will start in the upcoming version of Chrome with a test where only the domain name is shown in the url bar. The entire domain, including prefixes such as www, will then disappear. There will be a menu option to still show that information.

Google is starting an experiment in Chrome 86 scheduled for October this year. A small group of users will only see the domain name in that version of the browser. Prefixes such as https and www are no longer shown. Also internal urls and anchors are no longer automatically displayed.

Users can move their mouse over the url bar to still see the entire domain. In addition, there will be an option in the Chrome menu to show the entire domain name by default if users wish.

Google itself says that it wants to make browsing safer. With just the main domain in the url bar, spoofed and phishing domains would be easier to spot. The company refers to a study that it carried out itself. This would show that many users trust domains if they contain the name of the spoofed service, even if it is used as a prefix or subdomain, for example. By only showing the main part of the url, users would more easily see that it is a fake domain. With the test, Google wants to see how users react to the new url implementation.

The feature is being tested for the first time on a limited group of users. Unselected users can also call up the feature #omnibox-ui-reveal-steady-state-url-path-query-and-ref-on-hover and #omnibox-ui-sometimes-elide-to-registrable-domain manually adding to chrome: // flags.

It’s not the first time Google has thought about hiding such information. In Chrome 79, showing prefixes was completely removed, although it came back later with a toggle.