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You say the protocol being used is important. Is it? Why? I think it is not. I think the important things for 99.9% of people are: (i) this is a website, (ii) t

by nudge 16y ago

You say the protocol being used is important. Is it? Why? I think it is not. I think the important things for 99.9% of people are: (i) this is a website, (ii) this is a secure website. The actual protocol being used is a technical issue that the user does not need to know. The user just needs to know if it is secure or not. You take issue with the icon. For years browsers have added a padlock to the UI when https:// https:// is being used. Do we therefore need the 'https:// https:// part? Do you think there should be no such icon? In fact, I would argue that displaying a globe icon for most websites, and a padlock icon for secure websites, is an enormous boon for web security. Consider the previous situation, without icons: you are asking the user to spot the difference between 'http:// http:// and 'https:// https://. This is not something everyone will manage. You don't like the abstraction because you are comfortable with what is being abstracted away. This does not mean the abstraction is not valuable. It means it is not valuable to you.

isleyaardvark 16y ago
I don't take issue with icons in and of themselves, it's the replacement of the text representation with an icon. it's the break in conventions. The http/https part has always been visible on any browser. Having http:// http:// at the beginning of URLs certainly isn't my idea of perfection, but to some extent we're stuck with it. It's much like the floppy disk icon for "Save". Why use that? There are kids today who have never even seen a floppy disk. But that doesn't mean that the floppy disk icon should just be up and removed from toolbars. A lot of thought should be put into a change like that.
- nudge 16y ago
  It's not really like the save icon. The padlock for https is like the save icon, because it is a metaphor for a certain interesting state. Http, on the other hand, doesn't tell you anything except that you're not on https (or ftp, etc). So you don't need to be told about it. Suppose the icon for your email program has a badge on it with an unread count. I'm suggesting that 'http:// http:// is kind of like keeping that badge there with a zero when you have no emails.

by nudge 16y ago

isleyaardvark 16y ago

I don't take issue with icons in and of themselves, it's the replacement of the text representation with an icon. it's the break in conventions. The http/https part has always been visible on any browser. Having http:// http:// at the beginning of URLs certainly isn't my idea of perfection, but to some extent we're stuck with it. It's much like the floppy disk icon for "Save". Why use that? There are kids today who have never even seen a floppy disk. But that doesn't mean that the floppy disk icon should just be up and removed from toolbars. A lot of thought should be put into a change like that.

nudge 16y ago
It's not really like the save icon. The padlock for https is like the save icon, because it is a metaphor for a certain interesting state. Http, on the other hand, doesn't tell you anything except that you're not on https (or ftp, etc). So you don't need to be told about it. Suppose the icon for your email program has a badge on it with an unread count. I'm suggesting that 'http:// http:// is kind of like keeping that badge there with a zero when you have no emails.