URLs are one of the Internet’s hallmarks. Thanks to them, we can visit the most remote places in the world using our devices without getting lost. URLs were invented at the same time as the World Wide Web. Thanks to these addresses, we can access one page or another.
But URLs are not the safest system in the world. Good proof of this is the so-called phising, or action to deceive users with a fake website that shares almost all the characters of the original website, but that is not the true one. Hackers can put a purchase button or an access area for users to enter their information like their credit card number without knowing that they are being deceived.
Google wants to remove URLs (With Karampelas / Unsplash)
Although in recent years the HTTPS protocol has been imposed, which serves to differentiate a safe from an insecure web, users continue to be stung by phishing traps. To avoid these situations, Google is designing the next generation of URL, which basically consists of removing URLs.
“What we’re really talking about is changing the way the site’s identity is presented,” Emily Stark, head of browser security at Google Chrome said to WIRED magazine. “People should easily know where they are, and should not be confused and think they are somewhere else. I should not have an advanced knowledge of how the Internet works to solve it,” she added.
No one will have to change the URL of their website to adapt to the changes that Google is preparing. The revolution will occur in the Chrome browser itself, which will identify the Webs in a different way, analyzing if they are the true ones or not, and announcing to the user that they are in danger or not.
Chrome will analyze the name and collate it with the information stored on that site to see if there is any shocking difference, for example, if it is called Yah00 instead of Yahoo. In addition, Chrome is trying a different way to show URLs, showing only the important part (the beginning of the URL) and not the end, so that no user gets lost in a bunch of incomprehensible numbers, symbols and letters. The pages will be called the same, the browsers will go to them in the same way, but we will see something else in the address bars. And it will be for our good.
When will this novelty be available? Google has not yet given any date, since it is currently in a testing phase, and we will still have to wait to see them on our screens.
Also published on Medium.