A few weeks ago, Google Chrome (Official Build, ver 88.x 64 bit) started hiding the full URL from the address bar. Very annoying, and very troublesome. Some argue this is all part of Google taking the web to a Google-centric closed web, and they aren’t wrong. The address bar only shows the main domain. Sure, it looks “cleaner”, but that extra space to the right of the domain is sitting there being useless. Well, I guess for smaller screens it gives more room for Chrome extensions to be on active state. However, extensions are also being hidden on a “smart” way, only showing an extension that is being interacted with, which is pretty useful.

I was working with CiviCRM today, and not being able to see entity IDs finally got to me. I searched and found this:

https://superuser.com/questions/799275/how-to-restore-the-url-in-google-chromes-omnibox-i-e-always-show-it-without-r

The original instructions above tell me to open chrome://flags/#origin-chip-in-omnibox, which is supposed to open the flags settings page and jump to the relevant section, but this is from 2017 and already the flag name has changed, so the bookmark jump doesn’t work. After some digging in the chrome://flags/ page, I finally found the below three settings, and changed them from “Default” to “Disabled”. I’m not exactly sure what each does, but they look related to my problem. After changing them, and closing all Chrome windows and restarting Chrome, I can see the full URLs again.

Omnibox UI Sometimes Hide Steady-State URL Subdomains Beyond Registrable Domain
In the omnibox, occasionally hide subdomains as well as path, query and ref from steady state displayed URLs, depending on heuristics. Has no effect unless at least one of #omnibox-ui-reveal-steady-state-url-path-query-and-ref-on-hover or #omnibox-ui-hide-steady-state-url-path-query-and-ref-on-interaction is enabled. – Mac, Windows, Linux, Chrome OS
#omnibox-ui-sometimes-elide-to-registrable-domain

Omnibox UI Reveal Steady-State URL Path, Query, and Ref On Hover
In the omnibox, reveal the path, query and ref from steady state displayed URLs on hover. – Mac, Windows, Linux, Chrome OS
#omnibox-ui-reveal-steady-state-url-path-query-and-ref-on-hover

Omnibox UI Hide Steady-State URL Path, Query, and Ref On Interaction
In the omnibox, hide the path, query and ref from steady state displayed URLs when the user interacts with the page. – Mac, Windows, Linux, Chrome OS
#omnibox-ui-hide-steady-state-url-path-query-and-ref-on-interaction

This other similar question below is not what I was looking for, but I think if someone implemented this, it would be super helpful in working with CiviCRM pages, because for me also the last parameter (usually the CID parameter) is the one that I keep watching to ensure I’m editing the correct contribution page or contact entry.

https://superuser.com/questions/827069/how-to-make-chrome-show-beginning-and-end-of-long-urls-in-the-url-bar

i think these boys don’t have enough brain processing power to understand that there are core parts in their own socioeconomic world-view that are in diametric opposition to each other

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prsZ8DLq9rA

ugh what is this compatibility nightmare