Chrome May Drop the URL Bar 343
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."
Okay, I like my screen real estate... (Score:5, Interesting)
...but that's going a little overboard. The one thing that you really shouldn't ever try to shuffle away on a browser is the URL bar.
I don't think that's something I could ever get used to.
Re:Okay, I like my screen real estate... (Score:4, Interesting)
AOL tried hiding addresses with their keywords and look how dumb their user base got. I still see idiot AOL users who have no freaking clue what a URL is.
Minimalism taken too far (Score:5, Interesting)
I understand the drive to minimize the UI in popular applications, but there's a point where it is taken too far. When widgets with intuitive functions start to have extra, magic functionality added on in order to get rid of other widgets, that raises a yellow flag with me. A tab, I get. A text box, I get. A combo tab and text box, hmm, I could get used to it, I guess. But taken too far, I can see UI's being without any chrome at all, and interacting with it becomes a mysterious combination of gestures, control keys, and hovering over the right places. I'm not a fan of that.
As it is supposed to be (Score:2, Interesting)
Finally after all these years the browser is feature complete!
URLs were never meant to be part of the user interface. They were always meant to be hidden. Look at them. Do you really think they were designed to be typed by humans? For further proof, read the historical notes from the w3c archives.
Re:Okay, I like my screen real estate... (Score:2, Interesting)
"Do you call directory assistance if you know the number? Then why do you google when I'm telling you the address?"
lynx? (Score:4, Interesting)
So basically google is making a version of lynx that will show pictures and text formatting? Oh, wait, even lynx has a basic interface that makes it, what's that word...useful. That's it. Chrome is already too minimal for my tastes. It's ok to have a few buttons up there. Honest.
What's funny is that we're seeing a reverse in computing ability. I remember back when a 14" monitor was standard. When we got those 17" crts(15.75" viewable) we marveled at the screen real estate. Now at work we have either dual 19" or dual 21" monitors. But the trend actually seems to be towards smaller screens. At our school, 99% of the students have laptops or netbooks with the same physical screen size as the crt monitors we trashed almost a decade ago. If you asked us in 2001 if we'd give up a 22" widescreen for a 14" or even 10" screen we'd have laughed you out of the building.
Just give in and make a tablet/netbook version of chrome and a full featured, full interface version for desktops and laptops.
Re:Really Stupid Idea (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Who needs the URL bar? (Score:5, Interesting)
I used to think it was odd, seeing my supervisor do that at work, when I suggested a site to him which might not necessarily be work related. Some great time later, I realized why he did it that way-- If you type the URL into Google, it doesn't show up in the URL bar's history. This was before private browsing and that sort of thing started showing up, and while he wasn't too concerned about what someone might find if they pulled up the browser history, he didn't necessarily want everywhere he's recently gone to appear if someone just happened to sit down at his desk to use the web.
Re:Who needs the URL bar? (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
I do. Google spellchecks the URL for me so I don't accidentally get typo-phished. Most times Google will even warn me if the site I'm about to go to may harm my system... Think of this as a manual phishing filter that takes 0% additional resources when not in use, and no effort to disable / re-enable (In FF anyhow: left entry = manual URL; right entry = Search box / URL sanitiser)
Just make it optional, you bastards! (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Who needs the URL bar? (Score:2, Interesting)
Most modern browsers like Firefox already do that for you too, even if you type the URL straight in.
I thought that Chrome, Firefox and IE would all help to detect phishing sites. The other day I actually received a phishing email (purporting to be from Chase - a company I don't bank with). It was the first time I'd gotten one in years. I figured it was a good chance to test the phishing blocking in Chrome, Firefox, and IE. I went ahead and put the URL into Chrome. It took me to a site that looked like, but was not, Chase. I put the URL into Firefox. It also took me to the phishing site. I put the URL into IE 8. It gave me a "this looks like a phishing site" warning and did not take me to the site. Honestly I was completely surprised that IE did this better. I really haven't used IE for anything but Intranet sites at work in years. I then went to the Google page to report a phishing site and reported this URL. Two weeks later, Chrome still took you direct to the site. Of course so did Firefox because Firefox uses the Google service for detecting phishing sites. From what I can tell, Google never did block the site even though it had been reported. The site itself is now offline (since these sites never have a long shelf life).