Why Is Google Chrome Killing the URL?

Google to Kill the URL

Google has been known for promoting user security throughout its many products yet their latest plan for Google Chrome entertains killing the URL.

In an attempt to retire long and unintelligible URLs, which could lead to confusion and potential scams, Google is taking a stance against hackers and malicious websites.

Wouldn’t you want to know if you are browsing a spoof site such as googel.com or amazom.com that rely on minor character changes to deceive users?

That is precisely what Google is trying to do: change how site identity is presented and making it easier to detect a website’s authenticity without the need to have advance knowledge of the internet.

For this purpose, they have launched an open source tool called TrickURI, which enables developers to verify that their URLs are displaying accurately.

The next change is coming to Google Chrome with the release of warnings that will notify the user when browsing malicious URLs. This feature is still being tested but will be pivotal to help the browser flag dodgy sites.

The release date is yet to be confirmed.

Will this have any impact on domains?

Despite the seeming risk that this poses to URLs, Google is not trying to make any drastic changes to the web’s infrastructure, so this is not the end of the domains as we know them.

It is safe to assume that domains, especially premium domains, will stay around for much longer and will continue to increase in value.

What were other URL changes in Chrome?

  • 2010: “HTTP” is removed from the address bar.
  • 2014: Google tests a feature known as “origin chip” to try to evolve the display of the URL – this never saw the light.
  • 2017: some HTTP websites are marked as not secure.
  • 2018: all HTTP websites are marked as not secure, especially those that allow users to enter data, and “www” and “m” (for mobile sites) is removed from the URLs.
  • 2019: TrickURI is introduced.