Despite challenges, URLs are the age-old way users identify and determine a website’s authenticity. Phishing, scams, and social engineering run rampant – especially when hackers easily manipulate URLs to confuse users purposefully.
The new version of Google Chrome 86, which is set to release in October, will hide most of a website’s URL. This experimental trial will roll out on randomly-chosen participants’ browsers. Google Chrome security team members Emily Stark, Eric Mill, and Shweta Panditrao wrote on the blog: “Our goal is to understand – through real-world usage – whether showing URLs this way helps users realize they’re visiting a malicious website, and protects them from phishing and social engineering attacks.”
Instead of showing the entire URL in Chrome’s address bar, trial participants will see a “registrable domain,” which is the most significant part of the domain name, sometimes displayed as the primary company or business. This change might make it easier for users to ensure they are in the right place and not a malicious site they were tricked into visiting.
The complete URL can still be accessed by moving the cursor over the address bar and hovering it. Chrome will then reconstitute the URL into its original form. Moreover, users can right-click “Always show full URLs,” which will set the address bar to show the URL for all sites automatically.
Read more about Google’s anti-phishing attempts in this article.
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The Computer Mouse Co-Inventor, William English, Dies at 91
On July 26th, engineer William English passed away at the age of 91. He leaves behind a legacy in the computer technology field for his achievements alongside his partner, Douglas Engelbart, for creating the first computer mouse that revolutionized workstations that we all know and use today. According to this article, William and Douglas began their partnership in the late 1950s at the Stanford Research Institute. Douglas initially came up with the idea of a device that could move a cursor across a computer, but William oversaw the design and the creation of what was later called “the mouse.”
It’s not exactly clear how the mouse name has originated; however, some experts believe it referenced the cursor, which was at the time was called “cat,” that would chase the motions of the device. Others have said the name came from its physical appearance resembling a mouse tail attached to the device. The first version of the mouse was introduced at a 1968 convention with a wooden block that had wheels on the bottom. This convention was later known as “The Mother of All Demos” since there were multiple new demonstrations with significant impacts on the technological world such as the computer window, video call, and precursor to the hyperlink. A few years later, William English left Stanford to work at Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center and polished the mouse design for personal use for both Microsoft and Apple.