Google’s latest version of Chrome, version 64, deals with the problem of messy URLs by cleaning them up before they’re shared.
When sharing a URL from Chrome’s built-in ‘Share’ menu all unnecessary parameters will be trimmed off. The end result is a cleaner, shorter URL that looks more presentable.
Chrome’s URL shortener will also remove any anchor tags that trigger a page to load at a specific location. Such as a link that jumps the page part-way down rather that starting at the top.
Manually copying a URL from the address bar is the only way to capture it in its original form. So it will still be possible to view the exact URL, should anyone be interested in doing so.
A common situation where this would come in handy is when you’re following links from one site to another. Sometimes a long referral string is attached to the URL representing where it was originally found.
Referral strings are useful for data collection, but make for messy URLs when shared via social media or email. That’s just one example, of course, but the same goes for similar scenarios. Now all parameters that are not needed to access the main content of a page will be removed when shared from Chrome.
