Okay Geek Farm
Google Chrome could kill the URL bar with new concept
Brandon Davenport
Now, I created the concept above because Google only supplied sketches and I wanted to show what it would actually look like — now on to the meat of this story. When you look at Google Chrome out of the box, it really is a compact interface. Not much going on besides a URL bar, a few buttons and the standard close and minimize buttons — But Google could be planning to kill the URL bar.
The URL bar has been with us since the very first browser, and removing it would be for mainly cosmetic reasons (aka) “saving a few pixles of space” — but it could open doors for better tab management. Currently, tabs all share one URL bar and it’s worked pretty well so far, but what Google is proposing is each tab having it’s own URL bar.
How this would work
What would happen is this, when you click on a tab (or open a new tab), a URL bar would be displayed below the tab, relative to the position of the tab. Once a page has loaded, the URL bar would dissapear, and only re-appear if the tab is clicked again.
The familliar Chrome controlls (like the back button and the wrench menu icon) would be moved into the tab area, helping to eliminate the URL bar, where they are currently located. A downside of this is the space available for tabs would be limited, but the adition of something like “stacked tabs” would help.
Other concepts
Google also outlined other possible Chrome layout configurations, one where the URL bar and menu items would be to the right, and another designed for touch — but we see the “tabbed URL bars” as the most interesting change. If this configuration is successful, this could change the face of browsers into the future. Something that we have come to be so familiar with could dissapear.
Also, Google wants to add multiple profiles to Google Chrome (hooray!) which will add the ability to “switch” profiles and access your Gmail, bookmarks and RSS feeds even when using your family computer without having to log out and sign in every time.
Suggestions for Google
Google, please add Stacked Tabs, like stacks in your Mac OS X dock, but for tabs, so you can group them to save space. Also, place all menu items under one menu (keep the wrench) and move all installed extensions to an “Extensions” menu, much like the settings “wrench”.
Also, if all this does come to Google Chrome, make it “opt-in” for users. It’s a big change for everyone, and we’re sure people will hate it (except for geeks). It’s a great idea, but everyone is already familiar with the URL bar, and some haven’t even figured that out yet!
