Google is constantly experimenting with the functions of its browser. This is not the first time that you have implemented changes to the interface and the way you browse the Internet and, soon after, you have to revert the changes to maintain the classic experience. And this is what has happened with one of the latest innovations introduced in Chrome, and that is that Google has had to reverse its intentions to simplify the URL displayed by the browser and, by default, culminate the WWW and HTTPS elements of the bar of addresses.
With the launch of Google Chrome 69 , in September 2018, Google introduced a feature that gave a lot to talk about. By default, the browser started hiding the WWW and HTTP, HTTPS, and FTP from URLs. This feature sought to allow users to more easily read the URLs of the websites by eliminating that unnecessary content.
This function began to cause problems and Google was forced to withdraw it days later. URLs were back to the way they always were until the release of Chrome 76 , when this content was hidden again. However, Google offered a flag to users to display the full URL as usual. And so it was until the release of Chrome 79, when, finally, the flag was completely removed and all URLs were hidden.
Although it is possible to see the full URL of any website by double-clicking on the address bar, many users prefer to have it always in view, for customary reasons and even for security, to check the protocol and that the website is not being supplanted by a URL.
Now it seems that Google backtracks again with this function. Although by default the URLs will continue in the way they are now, from Chrome 83 we will be able to activate an experimental option in the browser that will add a new option in the address bar to always show the full URLs of the websites that we visit.
Redisplay full URLs in Chrome
The first thing to keep in mind is that this new feature is currently only available for Chrome 83 , a version that, at the moment, is only available in the Canary branch of Chrome . Users of the beta and stable branches will not be able to activate this experimental option at the moment.
If we have the Canary version of Chrome installed, all we have to do to enable this function is type the following in the browser’s address bar:
chrome: // flags / # omnibox-context-menu-show-full-urls
And mark as “enabled” the option that appears.
We restart the browser and ready. Chrome’s new experimental feature is now enabled. Although surely we still do not see the full URLs when visiting a website.
How the new option to display full URLs works
What this flag does is enable a new option in the context menu of the Chrome address bar that allows us to restore the usual appearance of the address bar.
Clicking on this address bar we will see a new entry at the bottom called ” Always show full URLs “.
If we click on it we will enable it. And, in this way, we will begin to see the full URLs again when visiting any web page.
In case you want to shorten the URLs again , you just have to uncheck the box, and the addresses will have the new short appearance again, hiding the default WWW and HTTPS.
