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Have you ever wondered why people put http:// in front of website addresses? Well, without getting into the details, it actually an important part of how the web works.

In the latest Google Chrome dev build, when you go to a website, it simply removes the http:// from the front of website addresses — presumably because it cleans things up a bit.

I don’t think it makes much of a difference actually — considering I never even noticed what was happening until I read Zack Whittaker about the new “feature”. Simplicity is a good thing — but sometimes it’s easy to over-think things.

Personally, I believe Google should put the http:// back in — after learning what is happening, it gone makes the browser feel a bit inconsistent. For example, when you visit a website that is “secure” (https://), or view a directory on your computer (file:///C:/), the front part isn’t automatically removed — and probably shouldn’t be.

Source: ZDNet