think it doesn't matter that browsers want to hide the URL from users?

imagine twitter stops making individual tweets accessible by actual URLs, so that your only sharing options are through their UI.

same with other social media platforms.

now imagine the browser does that.

we'd be moving from what the "web" is to a closed-wall garden of controlled access to content.

the URL is absolutely fundamental to what makes the web, the web. these are inseparable.

if a browser hides the URL, we train a whole generation of people not to know about or care about where resources reside, or to have control over addressing and accessing those resources.

train that generation not to know, remove entirely from the next generation.

it's not "good enough" for the browser let you still get to the hidden URL with one or several clicks. it's not "good enough" that it's just behind an obscure config flag.

these aren't innocuous improvements to UI, they are the next steps in the goal of disconnecting the web.

if you think that isn't in some product roadmap or at least on the wishlist of some CEO, the fingers in your ears might be blocking you out from hearing what's really going around you.

a few years from now, we'll see an "intent to ship" notice from some browser like chrome, saying they've looked at the statistics, and shockingly 99.7% of all user sessions never even clicked to see the URL, so they conclude people don't care about the URL, so they'll remove it.

sure, you think I'm just overreacting. these things boil slowly, and nobody ever thinks little by little that the water temp is going up.

I call myself an "open web evangelist" which means I always speak up for what I think the web needs. I just want to protect the web.