this is actually the main reason I cannot use Safari. It always boggled my mind that they made this decision.
For power users, they never look at the url unless they want information from it, in which case the `www` is valuable.
For low tech users, it can lead to straight up incomprehensible issues, like sites not rendering properly (think of a `m.*`).
The UI gains are so small, that part of the screen is never really looked at, but needs to be there, and typically has tons of horizontal room... I don't get it
Low-tech users don’t often understand that a difference could possibly exist between “m.” and “www.” at all.
However, if it shows the TLD, they can confirm it says “google.com”. Imagine they’re visiting a Paypal phishing link, to the domain:
www.paypal.com.www.com
The most important thing to show the user is “www.com”, because they’re expecting “paypal.com”. All the rest is nonessential for protecting users from bad actor sites.
Looking at the bug report, Chrome would actually show "www.paypal.com.www.com" as "paypal.com.com". At least Safari does the wrong thing the right way.
Personally, I always want to see the full URL. It's fine if part of the domain, the scheme etc. are grayed out to emphasize the second and top level domains, but don't omit elements that are necessary to fully identify the resource because the lowest common denominator may think that fishing.com/paypal.com is paypal.
Yep, I verified that bug as well, apparently they never planned for "www" being somewhere other than at the front of the domain name. Sounds like they already know, woot!
> Low-tech users don’t often understand that a difference could possibly exist between “m.” and “www.” at all.
They should. Children probably have difficulty with '6' vs. '9,' but they need to learn in order to use our number system. Likewise, users of the Internet need to learn the domain name system. Could there be better name systems? Sure. There could be better number systems, too, but this is what we have for now.
The general public does not perceive that difference, likely as a direct result of dot-com inventiveness with respect to domain names. Thanks to the stupidity of “m.” (WAP is dead) and “amp.” (WAP lives!) and the cuteness of “baredoma.in” (Silicon Valley represent) and the insanity of “www1034.www” (here’s looking at you, HP), we have spent the last decade on the web directly teaching non-tech users that what used to matter (“www”) no longer means anything at all, and they’ve listened.
This is not a feature. Make users understand this, don't hide it, make the main domain glowing green, wash out the rest, anything, but this trend of hiding complexity will only lead to severe undereducation on the topic, and, eventually, it will reach professionals as well, who also won't understand, what they should.
Reducing the displayed value from { "is_secure" YES/NO, "http/https" ARGH/WHAT, "full URL" GIBBERISH } to { "is_secure" YES/NO, "domain" AOL KEYWORD } improves my chances of defending against a phishing attack someday, as well as those of non-tech users.
Reducing information density is a critical component of automobile safety measures. Dashboards in cars just prior to the "screens everywhere" era have been boiled down to the essence of what's necessary for a human being to operate a vehicle safely and without putting others at risk: One bright line showing speed, one bright line showing engine speed, one bright lint showing fuel remaining, and a few multicolored status icons; and then, a central info display where any logic more complex than "push to show next value" requires parking the car.
You can still see the full URL by focusing the address bar with either a click or ⌘-L.
I think it makes sense for the default display to show the most security-relevant information (TLD, SLD, and presence + validity of the certificate) in the default display, while deferring the full display (incl. spurious or malicious information that might be in the full URL e.g. https://example.com/www/paypal/com/login) to a user request (click or shortcut).
That said, Chrome 69's decision to to hide /all/ instances of www in the domain is unconscionably bad.
> this is actually the main reason I cannot use Safari.
Then I have good news for you! If you go to Safari's preferences and select the Advanced tab, there's a checkbox called "Show full website address" that disables this behavior and shows the full URL in the search bar.
Safari on iOS barely has enough room to show the domain, let alone the full URL. Tapping on the URL bar will present the full URL in an editable/scrollable text field.
For power users, they never look at the url unless they want information from it, in which case the `www` is valuable.
For low tech users, it can lead to straight up incomprehensible issues, like sites not rendering properly (think of a `m.*`).
The UI gains are so small, that part of the screen is never really looked at, but needs to be there, and typically has tons of horizontal room... I don't get it