After strengthening the address bar in 2018, Google Chrome hid the HTTP protocol field and the WWW field by default. In Chrome 85, Google again adds a series of new flags (flags) aimed at removing the full URL from the address bar.
The new flag is named “Omnibox UI Hide Steady-State URL Path, Query, and Ref.” Once enabled, it hides everything except the root domain of the address you’re visiting. After enabling this feature, Chrome’s address bar only shows the site’s root domain — for example, visiting Renfei’s Blog would only show “www.renfei.net”; even entering a second-level page, it would only show “www.renfei.net,” and the finer URL parameters after it would all disappear.
If a user wants to see the detailed domain, they need to hover over the address bar, and Chrome will then show the detailed URL info.
Google’s reason for adjusting the address bar may be for user safety, worrying that someone could craft a malicious long domain name to trick users into thinking it’s another site — such as a fake site disguised as a game official site or an online banking page.
It seems Google Chrome really dislikes the address bar. Will it one day make the whole address bar disappear? Like Thanos, a snap of the fingers, and the address bar turns to dust… It’s all for the user’s sake. You may not be used to it at first, but over time people should understand the reasoning.