Hide the http:// in web browsers

The "http://" prefix to regular consumer websites is unnecessary and only complicates. Anyways 99% of the sites people visit use the HTTP protocol, so why do you have to tell the browser that? It should guess it!

I want to hide the "http://" prefix everywhere, in the address/location bar URL, on Hyperlink tips, in the status bar, basically everywhere in a browser.

Any Firefox Add-on to do this? Any other way for another browser?

From serverfault Jenko

• Most browser do guess at it. If you enter an address without HTTP:// prefix it will add it on for you.

  It would be a browser feature to hide this, and as far as I know, no browsers offer this.

  Jenko : I know this, I wanted a way to HIDE the http:// prefix if that was in the current URL.
  From Sam Cogan

• 99% might use the HTTP protocol, but there's a lot more than 1% that use HTTP over TLS (ie HTTPS) and they're on different ports, so the browser needs to know which port to open.

  Also, the browser does guess it.

  Jenko : I know this, I wanted a way to HIDE the http:// prefix if that was in the current URL.

  Dave Cheney : So, you want to control the display of the http:// prefix in the address bar of the users browser ?

  Jenko : Exactly. Hide it. Permanently, unless the current URL is not using the HTTP protocol.

  Jenko : In the case of HTTPS, it could just display a lock icon someplace.
  From Richard Gadsden

• There is no way to do this, that I know of, on any of the modern browsers.

  Jenko : What a pity! Wish someone would write a Firefox addon to do just that! It would be the most popular addon of all time and they might just consider implementing it into the browser.

  Richard : This is a GOOD THING. The ability for web sites to change what is appearing in the address bar would just make phishing so much easier.

  Peter Boughton : Richard, I think Jeremy is after a client-side setting for this. For example, with Google Chrome, http is displayed grey, whilst https is displayed green (or red) - I think he wants to take this a step further and simply only show non-HTTP protocols (and possibly using an icon rather than the code/abbr).

  Jenko : @Peter: Exactly!
  From David Collantes

• I'm guessing you're thinking something like the iPhone css tricks which scroll the page down a dozen pixels to obscure the url header.

  This is not possible with any browser that is currently shipping, even if it was, you wouldn't be able to control that setting via the javascript DOM.

  The closest I can think is with a javascript driven popup, which can suggest to the browser that it should hide the url bar. However popups are very much out of vogue.

  Richard : ... and newer browsers ignore the hide address bar in popup option to avoid phishing and other attacks.

  Dave Cheney : Exactly, so that technique is unlikely to be effective.
  From Dave Cheney

• The HTTP:// string is not a prefix of the URL, it's part of the URL. Which is why you can't (and shouldn't) hide it, since the application is displaying the URL.

  From Sietse

• There is a great add-on for Firefox called Locationbar² that does just what you want (and some!). One of its main features is to break the URL into breadcrumbs.

  In the options dialog you can specify what protocols you'd like to hide:

  

  Here is what mine looks like:

  

  ceejayoz : Very nifty, +1!

  Jenko : Amazing! Thanks so much. I've searched for *years* and never found this!

  Jenko : There's just one problem. The hidden protocols reappear when editing and on rollover. So its not totally invisible :)

  hmemcpy : Well... yeah :) But now I'd like to ask as well, why do you want to have it disappear completely?

  cmjohns : Great tip - Thanks!
  From hmemcpy

• Have you never used https or ftp in a browser?

  From Kz.

• Google Chrome 6 now does precisely what you asked for. It was released yesterday (2 September 2010).

  From Richard Gadsden

• If you're unhappy with the browsers out there, roll your own. Firefox and Chrome are both open-source, so most of the work is already done for you.

  stevenvh : Wouldn't count this as helpful.

  gWaldo : I'm not saying it to be an ass; I'm saying it in case he legitimately hasn't considered it.
  From gWaldo

• My vote is definitely for the new Google Chrome. It will hide the "http://"; however, show https, ftp or any other protocol that you feed it.

  Chris S : Please add comments to specific questions. This is not a forum; please use the answer button only to Answer the initial Question. Thank you.
  From Braden