There is more that can be productively argued about this topic, at least for parties who decide to not insist otherwise. URLs won't go away as long as people are still sharing websites on social networks or their own websites. I don't see the problem with not displaying the entire URL at the top of the browser window, if no actual functionality it lost. I this case, there's not even any additional clicks required to perform the same operations with URLs.
Came here to say similar. In addition I dont see any problem. The URL bar is a redundant usability smell. Needs to be cleaned up in the fashion they have.
On security, I feel its a problem sure, but teaching users about URLs is a bandaid fix, a hack and completely irrelevant to this change. You can't fix the phishing problem by showing URLs. It needs to be tackled in the proper manner and solved silently from the user.
Google already does the right thing when you use them for DNS (redirects on mispelt). They also implemented blacklists of dodgy content, not ideal and doesn't scale but its a good start. Better than claiming the user is at fault.
Basically if you need to claim the user is at fault your design is wrong whether you like it or not.
I agree with the possibility for productive debate, my comment is probably a bit too cynical. I just see a lot of redundant arguments, bad analogies and strawmen coming up soon and jumped the gun.
