Mozilla plans to hide the HTTPS and WWW parts of web addresses in the list of suggestions that the Firefox web browser displays when users type in the browser's address bar.

Firefox, like any other modern browser, displays a list of suggestions when users type in the address bar. The browser mixes local results, e.g. matching bookmarks and history entries, with search suggestions by default.

Currently, all results that display a web address display the full protocol and address as you can see on the screenshot below:

Starting in Firefox 75, Firefox won't display HTTPS or WWW by default anymore. The browser hides the information automatically in the address bar when users start to type.

Note that this does not affect the display of active sites in the address bar; these continue to display the full web address including the protocol and www subdomain if used.

Firefox 75 suggestions, currently available on the Nightly channel, look like this:

As you can see on the screenshot, Firefox will only display the full address if HTTP is used. If HTTPS is used, it is hidden automatically. The same is true for the www subdomain which is also hidden if HTTPS is used.

Mozilla notes that other browsers -- Chrome in particular -- hide the information as well and that this is done to "enhance readability".

Revert the change

Firefox users may revert the change, at least for now, to restore the classic display of suggestions in the address bar. Here is how that is done:

Load about:config in the web browser's address bar. Confirm that you will be careful if you get a warning page. Search for browser.urlbar.trimURLs. Set the value to False.

Setting the value to False disables the trimming of addresses in the address bar. You can restore the default at any time by setting the value to True again.

There is also browser.urlbar.update1.view.stripHttps which you may set to false to block Firefox from stripping HTTPS. The preference is temporary only however and browser.urlbar.trimURLs is the preference that will remain in Firefox.

Closing Words

I dislike changes that remove information from a browser. While Mozilla may be right that removing parts of the address improves readability, doing so may lead to situations where a site is opened that is not the expected site.

Imagine that www.example.com and example.com point to different resources. Firefox would display example.com only for both addresses in the list of suggestions making it impossible to determine which is which without opening the suggestions.

Now You: What is your take on the change? (via Techdows)

Summary Article Name Firefox 75 drops HTTPS and WWW from address bar results Description Mozilla plans to hide the HTTPS and WWW parts of web addresses in the list of suggestions that the Firefox web browser displays when users type in the browser's address bar. Author Martin Brinkmann Publisher Ghacks Technology News Logo

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