Even aside from their security implications, URLs are structured a little strangely; as the domain portion is read from left to right, it goes from specific (“arstechnica” is a specific website) to general (“com” is used for a wide range of commercial entities). The location after that, however, tends to go from general to specific (“gadgets” to denote the way we categorize our content; “2018/09″ to narrow it down to a particular year and month, then “google-wants-to-get-rid-of-urls-but-doesnt-know-what-to-use-instead” to indicate a specific article).
In 2014, Google did experiment with a more Safari-like URL presentation called “origin chip,” but this effort was abandoned amid complaints and its own set of security concerns.
Google is keeping tight-lipped on its ideas for future URLs and is aware of the enormous uphill task ahead of it. URLs are ubiquitous, and any major change will inevitably be resisted. For now, the Chrome engineers are working to better understand how URLs are used in various contexts before making a new recommendation. After all, sometimes URLs are explicitly typed by users; other times they’re opaque and hidden behind hyperlinks. Some URLs are good for sharing, others aren’t. Sometimes they’re shown on devices with abundant screen space, other times they’re so cramped that only a fragment of the URL can ever be seen. For now, we’re left with the patchwork of browser features to try to make these important addresses a little easier to understand and a bit safer to use.