5 ms·

Why did everybody lose their minds over this? It seems Safari does this without much drama.

by 1stranger 5y ago

websitejanitor 5y ago
I like to know which page I'm on
- slver 5y ago
  The current one
  - spicybright 5y ago
    The next change Google will try is replacing the URL with just "The current one".
    - slver 5y ago
      That’s basically what this experiment was. Show the origin only. The current page is obvious from the page itself.
meibo 5y ago
I was wondering about exactly the same thing, had to use Safari for work recently and not seeing the URL was extremely confusing.
- hashkb 5y ago
  Yes, as someone who only occasionally uses a Mac, I always think Safari is broken until I remember Apple tries to hide everything from you for your own good.
  - craftinator 5y ago
    If you can't do anything, you also can't do anything bad!
  - machello13 5y ago
    This might be news to you, but many apps on Mac actually have preferences that allow you to change their behavior. That's one of them.
- heavymark 5y ago
  In preferences it’s simply a check box to have it show full URLs in safari all the time.
judge2020 5y ago
I imagine most people here used Chrome before people started switching to Firefox once Google's large presence became more of a concern.
simplify 5y ago
I had to turn it off in Safari, not a good ux.
wyattpeak 5y ago
Pure speculation, but maybe because most of the commentary on this was coming from developers. I don't have an iPhone anymore but used to, and it was no problem that I only saw the domain, because on my phone I rarely cared about the specific address. When I'm working it's a bitch because quickly knowing the full address is useful all the time, and even at home much the same because I'm used to interacting heavily with my address bar. I'd imagine that most people, even on their laptops, are closer to the former situation, so it's not hard for it to have relatively widespread support.
- rusk 5y ago
  Who is going to advocate for users if not developers? It’s like giving out that civil rights lawyers are lawyers so why is their work relevant to ordinary citizens
  - wyattpeak 5y ago
    How is this not advocating for users? They tested the idea based on a metric they hoped would improve among users, found it didn't work, and so left it as is. That the comments about it mostly come from developers or similarly tech-literate people is neither here nor there, comments are inherently personal. When I post on a forum about a feature, I'm generally presenting only my own opinion. When I'm implementing a feature, I'm generally basing it on the opinions of users, as best I can gather them.
    - rusk 5y ago
      Yeah and they came to the same conclusion as “the cranky developers” had been moaning about all along. Fancy that.
- spurgu 5y ago
  As a user it's often also helpful to understand the context of what you're reading (as long as the site has a descriptive URL structure) - is this a blog post, featured article, sponsored article, when was it written.... a good URL conveys a lot of useful information and hiding this seems highly counterproductive. I am also very much against hiding "www.", but that's mostly from a developer/devops perspective. https/http can be hidden behind an icon, that's fine since it's a binary option, but that's as far as I'd go in accepting stripping information from URL's.
SXX 5y ago
Huge reason was that Google also simultaneously pushed AMP while hiding that pages are hosted on Google servers. So if you visited page like: https://google.com/amp/something.com/directory/article And in your address bar there will be just: something.com This is literaly URL hijacking and it's fundamentslly breaks trust in your address bar.
- fastball 5y ago
  Did google do that as part of this feature?
  - SXX 5y ago
    No, but I sure backlash against feature discussed here wouldn't be as big if Google's other hand wasn't pushing fake URLs for AMP pages.
- fomine3 5y ago
  You may refer SXG, but it seems that anyway SXG overrides URL to origin. So this is irrelevant.
rusk 5y ago
Safari is what safari does
toast0 5y ago
Safari was always garbage; Chrome used to fight for the users and now it's fighting for Master Control.
pwinnski 5y ago
/me looks up, see a full URL in Safari's address bar, looks down, reads comment, looks up... I might have set that as a preference, I can't remember.
thevagrant 5y ago
The argument that the address bar is too complex and we need to dumb it down is irritating. If we want to regress to AOL keywords then great. I would prefer we stick with an address bar. Let those who can learn the reason it exists and how to use it, learn. edit - btw I don't mean to infer parent poster argues this point, however it is often the reason 'designers' argue for these kinds of regressions.
Mindwipe 5y ago
Safari doesn't have enough marketshare for people to get very upset about it, and more importantly you can turn it off, which people did not trust Google to do.

Why did everybody lose their minds over this? It seems Safari does this without much drama.

websitejanitor 5y ago

I like to know which page I'm on

slver 5y ago
The current one
- spicybright 5y ago
  The next change Google will try is replacing the URL with just "The current one".
  - slver 5y ago
    That’s basically what this experiment was. Show the origin only. The current page is obvious from the page itself.

meibo 5y ago

I was wondering about exactly the same thing, had to use Safari for work recently and not seeing the URL was extremely confusing.

hashkb 5y ago
Yes, as someone who only occasionally uses a Mac, I always think Safari is broken until I remember Apple tries to hide everything from you for your own good.
- craftinator 5y ago
  If you can't do anything, you also can't do anything bad!
- machello13 5y ago
  This might be news to you, but many apps on Mac actually have preferences that allow you to change their behavior. That's one of them.
heavymark 5y ago
In preferences it’s simply a check box to have it show full URLs in safari all the time.

judge2020 5y ago

I imagine most people here used Chrome before people started switching to Firefox once Google's large presence became more of a concern.

simplify 5y ago

I had to turn it off in Safari, not a good ux.

wyattpeak 5y ago

Pure speculation, but maybe because most of the commentary on this was coming from developers. I don't have an iPhone anymore but used to, and it was no problem that I only saw the domain, because on my phone I rarely cared about the specific address. When I'm working it's a bitch because quickly knowing the full address is useful all the time, and even at home much the same because I'm used to interacting heavily with my address bar. I'd imagine that most people, even on their laptops, are closer to the former situation, so it's not hard for it to have relatively widespread support.

rusk 5y ago
Who is going to advocate for users if not developers? It’s like giving out that civil rights lawyers are lawyers so why is their work relevant to ordinary citizens
- wyattpeak 5y ago
  How is this not advocating for users? They tested the idea based on a metric they hoped would improve among users, found it didn't work, and so left it as is. That the comments about it mostly come from developers or similarly tech-literate people is neither here nor there, comments are inherently personal. When I post on a forum about a feature, I'm generally presenting only my own opinion. When I'm implementing a feature, I'm generally basing it on the opinions of users, as best I can gather them.
  - rusk 5y ago
    Yeah and they came to the same conclusion as “the cranky developers” had been moaning about all along. Fancy that.
spurgu 5y ago
As a user it's often also helpful to understand the context of what you're reading (as long as the site has a descriptive URL structure) - is this a blog post, featured article, sponsored article, when was it written.... a good URL conveys a lot of useful information and hiding this seems highly counterproductive. I am also very much against hiding "www.", but that's mostly from a developer/devops perspective. https/http can be hidden behind an icon, that's fine since it's a binary option, but that's as far as I'd go in accepting stripping information from URL's.

SXX 5y ago

Huge reason was that Google also simultaneously pushed AMP while hiding that pages are hosted on Google servers. So if you visited page like: https://google.com/amp/something.com/directory/article And in your address bar there will be just: something.com This is literaly URL hijacking and it's fundamentslly breaks trust in your address bar.

fastball 5y ago
Did google do that as part of this feature?
- SXX 5y ago
  No, but I sure backlash against feature discussed here wouldn't be as big if Google's other hand wasn't pushing fake URLs for AMP pages.
fomine3 5y ago
You may refer SXG, but it seems that anyway SXG overrides URL to origin. So this is irrelevant.

rusk 5y ago

Safari is what safari does

toast0 5y ago

Safari was always garbage; Chrome used to fight for the users and now it's fighting for Master Control.

pwinnski 5y ago

/me looks up, see a full URL in Safari's address bar, looks down, reads comment, looks up... I might have set that as a preference, I can't remember.

thevagrant 5y ago

The argument that the address bar is too complex and we need to dumb it down is irritating. If we want to regress to AOL keywords then great. I would prefer we stick with an address bar. Let those who can learn the reason it exists and how to use it, learn. edit - btw I don't mean to infer parent poster argues this point, however it is often the reason 'designers' argue for these kinds of regressions.

Mindwipe 5y ago

Safari doesn't have enough marketshare for people to get very upset about it, and more importantly you can turn it off, which people did not trust Google to do.