November 25 2025
If you hover over an https link in Safari, the status bar shows the full URL. (You have to select Show Status Bar in Safari’s View menu.) But if you hover over an http link, the status bar omits the URL scheme.
Chrome does the same thing.
Firefox, however, does the opposite! The status bar shows the full http URL but omits the https URL scheme.
In either case, I don’t know how in the world wide web omitting the URL scheme is helpful, or how web browser users are supposed to remember which URL scheme is omitted, even if they only ever use one browser.
Ironically, the Safari address bar omits the https URL scheme by default, which is the opposite of the Safari status bar.
You get to see the URL scheme only if you select the URL.
The address bar also omits the http URL scheme by default, but at least “Not Secure” is displayed, somewhat helpfully.
The Chrome address bar is similar to Safari.
However, enabling Always Show Full URLs in the View menu always shows the URL scheme.
The Firefox address bar omits the https URL scheme, like the Firefox status bar, though the address bar does show a lock icon.
In summary, the three major desktop web browsers are inconsistent with each other, sometimes inconsistent within themselves, and in general, nuts. I suspect that the web browser vendors ultimately want to erase URL schemes altogether, which is bad enough, but the current halfhearted, half-baked, half measures appear even worse. This misguided scheme to remove URL schemes needs to be completely rethought.