Google ends push for Chrome address bar to only show domain name

Google has reversed course and ended its experiment to only show Chrome users the domain name of the site they are on.

Kicked off in August, the experiment randomly assigned users to test whether it could help users spot phishing sites.

“Delete simplified domain experiment,” Google engineer Emily Stark wrote in a Chromium commit.

“This experiment didn’t move relevant security metrics, so we’re not going to launch it. :(”

Starting with Chrome 90, if a user did not specify the protocol to be used when accessing a site, Chrome would try first using HTTPS, before falling back to HTTP.

Earlier this week, Android Police spotted that Google had killed off its augmented reality Measure app. Heading to its listing without being signed into an account that has the app installed returns a “Not Found” error, while users that previously installed it can continue to see its listing page.

“This app is no longer supported and will not be updated,” the page states. “Users who previously installed this app can continue to use it on compatible devices.”

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