Google may remove the address bar in Chrome

Original author: Wolfgang Gruener
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Google is working on a “basic” thorough revision of the user interface (UI), its Chrome browser. Among the possible variations, is the exception of the address bar (URL bar), which may be the most significant change in the user interface of a web browser since its invention. Another feature that seems to have already been approved is the support of multiple user profiles that can be used in parallel.

The Chrome browser, as well as the Chrome OS interface, may make some big changes in the near future. Googler Jeff Chang said Chrome developers are making a “series of UI / frontend” changes about this. He intends to provide weekly progress reports “suitable for public consumption.”

The last significant changes to the Chrome browser user interface came with Chome 6, back in July 2010, when Google rejected the Stop and Go buttons and when it combined the Page and Tools menus . At that time, I already called Chome a “bare browser”, as it sets a trend towards a reduction in user interfaces, which are aimed at increasing the space for viewing websites and applications. Chrome set the pace, but it's IE9, which has the most efficient UI of our time in terms of displaying web content.

New navigation models:


Google is working on a better Chrom UI, which can be even more radical and exclude the address bar as a whole. according to the Chrome UI options page, Google is currently thinking of four different layouts - with four different types of navigation: classic navigation option, compact navigation, side-tab navigation and touch version. Google says they are “interested” in the development of all four versions, but the current builds of Chrome are “focused on classic and compact navigation styles.”

It’s somewhat surprising that Google is not dealing with the sidetab version of navigation that would be supported by checkmarks in Chrome. the company said that this layout will consume space for users who do not use many tabs, that it only works beautifully on screens that are 1366 pixels wide, and that the layout also does not apply to the Chromium browser as a whole.

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Google Chrome navigation / layout examples. Google

The most significant change is what Google calls the compact navigation model. The idea is to eliminate two-line navigation, the layout of which currently has tabs and navigation buttons on top, a menu and an address bar below. in the compact navigation model there will be only one line and the location of the navigation button, the search button, tabs and menus will be next to each other. There will be no address bar and the URL of each tab will not be visible at all, but will be displayed when the page loads and when the tab is active. In fact, there are now several address lines that are integrated into tabs.

Google noted that this layout has the advantage that it keeps the contents of the area immovable, that the search can be used as a “starter and switch”, that it can be applied in a flexible way on large screens and, possibly, will be included with the classic navigation layout and that applications can provide a better user experience “with full control of their content area”. As flaws, Google notes that the URLs are not always visible that the navigation and menu items are not located on the tab and lose the sensitivity of the content and that the tab bar is quite crowded. It should be noted that these layouts are not final and that the projects may change, but it seems that Google is trying to find ways to reduce the browser interface even more.

Multiple profiles


Judging by the concept of layouts, it seems that Google will soon introduce an option that will allow users to open multiple Chrome windows and apply different users to them. For example, if you use multiple Google accounts, you must log out / log in between different accounts. Through support for multiple profiles, you can be available on different accounts in parallel and use them to use them simultaneously - in different browser windows.
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Profile window layouts. The Google

Concept allows us to assume that future Chrome windows will show the name of the Google account not only in the window when you are on the Google page, but also in the browser window itself, next to the minimize / expand / close window control buttons.

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Profile Settings Google

The function will be enabled through the new profile section, on the personal materials tab in the browser settings, where users can configure various user profiles by default. What makes this feature interesting is that it is also linked to Sync, and will download bookmarks, autocomplete passwords, and options that are tied to a specific account. Each profile has its own incognito mode. If the user closes all Chrome windows, and then the window reopens, the window will be associated with the identity of the last closed window. If a user closes three windows with three different users, and then three windows open again, then the windows will be connected to three users again, Google says. Tabs are limited to work in a single user window and cannot be moved between browser windows with different users.

Omnibox History


For the classic navigation model, Google is looking at some improvements that look much closer to the history of the pages visited by users by providing appropriate URL entries when the user enters letters in the address bar. Based on the first letters that are entered in the address bar, Chrome will present suggestions that have come out of the user's browsing history in a similar way to how Google Instant works. “At this time, only the address of the visited page in the history is indexed and searched,” Google said. “The index and title search page will be added shortly.”

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The goals are to provide the user with results within 20 ms of typing and ensure the 10 best matches from the point typed by the user. Only URLs that have been typed at least twice by the user will be considered as offers or URLs that have been visited at least four times or URLs that have been visited within the last 72 hours after typing.

There is no information when these new features will find their way in Chrome.
// some sentences are deadly, I confess :)

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