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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?

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71% accept rate
Where do you want to hide it? In the browser address bar, or somewhere else? And as others have pointed out, you don't have to tell the browser that so it's not entirely clear what you're after here. – Paul May 11 '09 at 9:48
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@hmemcpy's answer indicates that this can be done, but why? – ceejayoz May 11 '09 at 13:38
"why do you have to tell the browser that" <--- you don't. All modern browsers will assume http:// if you do not explicitly type it. Like everyone else, I'm not entirely sure what your reason is for wanting to do this. I don't see what you could gain from it. – Graeme Donaldson Sep 3 '10 at 13:23
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closed as off topic by Zypher♦ Sep 30 '11 at 17:05

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11 Answers

up vote 21 down vote accepted

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:

enter image description here

Here is what mine looks like:

enter image description here

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Very nifty, +1! – ceejayoz May 11 '09 at 13:37
Amazing! Thanks so much. I've searched for years and never found this! – Jenko May 12 '09 at 5:25
There's just one problem. The hidden protocols reappear when editing and on rollover. So its not totally invisible :) – Jenko May 12 '09 at 5:53
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Well... yeah :) But now I'd like to ask as well, why do you want to have it disappear completely? – hmemcpy May 12 '09 at 6:57
Great tip - Thanks! – cmjohns May 12 '09 at 12:59
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up vote 16 down vote

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.

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up vote 5 down vote

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.

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I know this, I wanted a way to HIDE the http:// prefix if that was in the current URL. – Jenko May 11 '09 at 9:42
So, you want to control the display of the http:// prefix in the address bar of the users browser ? – Dave Cheney May 11 '09 at 10:18
Exactly. Hide it. Permanently, unless the current URL is not using the HTTP protocol. – Jenko May 11 '09 at 10:20
In the case of HTTPS, it could just display a lock icon someplace. – Jenko May 11 '09 at 10:23
@Jenko: for https i'd like that browsers shows "https" and not only a lock. the lock can be spoofed by a favicon. – petrus Aug 20 '11 at 8:41
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up vote 2 down vote

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

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up vote 1 down vote

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.

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I know this, I wanted a way to HIDE the http:// prefix if that was in the current URL. – Jenko May 11 '09 at 9:42
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up vote 1 down vote

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

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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. – Jenko May 11 '09 at 10:19
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. – Richard May 11 '09 at 12:25
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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). – Peter Boughton May 11 '09 at 12:32
@Peter: Exactly! – Jenko May 12 '09 at 5:24
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up vote 0 down vote

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.

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... and newer browsers ignore the hide address bar in popup option to avoid phishing and other attacks. – Richard May 11 '09 at 12:32
Exactly, so that technique is unlikely to be effective. – Dave Cheney May 11 '09 at 13:27
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up vote 0 down vote

Have you never used https or ftp in a browser?

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up vote 0 down vote

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.

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Wouldn't count this as helpful. – stevenvh Sep 3 '10 at 12:56
I'm not saying it to be an ass; I'm saying it in case he legitimately hasn't considered it. – gWaldo Sep 3 '10 at 14:48
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up vote 0 down vote

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.

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Please add comments to specific questions. This is not a forum; please use the answer button only to Answer the initial Question. Thank you. – Chris S♦ Sep 3 '10 at 13:02
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up vote 0 down vote

Just thought I'd add that Firefox 7 now does this by default also -- though it's still in beta.

enter image description here

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