Buzz
Over the years, HTTPS has continuously evolved, shifting from merely providing a sense of security for a specific website to becoming the minimum expected requirement for any website. It's important to note that instead of displaying 'Secure' when accessing an HTTPS website, Chrome will display 'Not Secure' when browsing a standard HTTP website.
- Learn more: What is HTTPS?
Previously, Google Chrome's address bar has hidden parts of URLs like www., http://, and https://. This lack of differentiation has led to an increase in the number of users simply entering a URL like 'abc.com' into their address bar and hitting Enter.
Chrome has the ability to figure out where you're trying to go, but perhaps not in the way you might expect. The first time you access a specific website this way, Chrome will try the insecure version of the URL, such as http://abc.com - and at that point, most secure websites will redirect you to the safe https:// URL. Chrome will then remember whether that HTTPS redirection occurred and will directly navigate to the https:// URL next time.
In the coming months, it appears Google intends to change the priorities of Chrome's address bar with a new flag added to chrome://flags and an article titled 'Omnibox - Use HTTPS as the default navigation protocol' indicates:
'Using HTTPS as the default protocol when users enter a URL without a protocol in the address bar, such as 'example.com '. Currently, such an entry navigates to http://example.com. When this new feature is enabled, it will navigate to https://example.com if an HTTPS URL is available. If Chrome cannot determine the availability of the HTTPS URL within the timeout period, it will fall back to the HTTP URL'.
From what we can see, firstly, Google Chrome will attempt to connect to the HTTPS version of any URL you enter in the address bar. If the website doesn't provide HTTPS - such as a test site like NeverSSL, Chrome will abandon after 3 or 10 seconds and instead connect to the website via HTTP.
Overall, this seems like a change that's long overdue. Thanks to efforts like Let's Encrypt making the HTTPS protocol approachable even for the most inexperienced web developers, there's really no reason why major web browsers like Chrome shouldn't attempt to connect via HTTPS first.
Because the new flag is present in the Chromium codebase, it's unlikely to appear in the stable version of Chrome until version 89 or 90, respectively launching in March and April this year. Even then, it may take a few more months before the Google Chrome address bar defaults to https://urls without needing to use the aforementioned Chrome flag.
Download the Latest Version of Google Chrome:
- Read more: Telegram: Signal has no 'competition' with it.
