How to always show the full address on hover in Google Chrome
Whenever you hover on a link in Google Chrome, the web address the link is pointing to is shown truncated in the status bar area of the browser.
While you can wait a second to see the url in its full glory, it is one of the most annoying things of the browser in my opinion.
While link truncation may make sense if the browser window is too small to display it all -- and even then that is questionable -- it does not make sense at all to do so when the window is of sufficient size.
While the root domain is always displayed, the actual destination is not. What is annoying about Chrome in a case like this is that you cannot customize how things are displayed in the browser. It is Google's way or no way.
Considering that link information are essential for security, it is not clear why Google made the decision to truncate links initially on hover.
If you want to display the link destination directly, you have to install an extension to do so. There are not many extensions available that provide you with that purpose, and the best one in my opinion is Link Revealer.
Link Revealer offers two display modes. The default mode is to display the full web address as a tooltip next to the link that you hover over.
This works well with the default 1 second delay before the tooltip is shown, but not so much if you reduce the time period.
The second option the extension makes available is to show the information on the edge of the browser window, or in the center.
You can display it in the bottom center for instance, or right top location, or the traditional left bottom position.
Please note that this does not do away with the address that Chrome displays itself in the lower left corner of the screen.
The third and final feature of the extension is the highlighting of the root domain in a color of your choosing.
Verdict
If you want the full web address displayed at once when you hover over links on websites displayed in the Chrome browser, then Link Revealer is the extension to make that happen.
You can set the time period before a link is shown to zero to display it instantly whenever you hover over links. My suggestion would be to disable the tooltip in this case so that the url is displayed in another location on the screen and not directly next to the link the mouse hovers over.
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It doesn’t show the true url as google and facebook use javascript to lie about the link and then link to their tracking forwarder instead.
FROM THE ARTICLE: While you can wait a second to see the url in its full glory, it is one of the most annoying things of the browser in my opinion.
MY RESPONSE: Hmmm. I dunno. In my IRON PORTABLE Chromium-based Chrom look-and-act-alike browser, it’s barely a second that you have to wait…
…and I just don’t know if bogging-down the browser with yet another extension (and the internal cost, then, of running it, and its memory use, etc.) is really worth it. We’re just talking one (1) second, after all. Just one.
That said, don’t get me wrong, this extension seems very cool; and I’m gonna’ install it and play with it and see if I like it better than what’s built-in to the browser; but I suspect I’m going to end-up uninstalling it. I could be wrong. We’ll see.
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Gregg L. DesElms
Napa, California USA
gregg at greggdeselms dot com
Veritas nihil veretur nisi abscondi.
Veritas nimium altercando amittitur.
UPDATE: Yeah, I’ve now used the extension for an evening and I’m sorry, it’s just too distracting. I can see the entire URL at the bottom left of the screen by just leaving the mouse pointer hovering that one extra second; and that’s fine. I don’t need this extension’s pop-up startling me every time I happen to drag the mouse pointer across a link. Seriously, it’s REALLY distracting.
I did notice, though, that in the “Show relative to Window at:” section of the options page, all the descriptions of all the radio buttons are on the wrong side. The radio button always belongs to the left of its description. Always.
This guy who wrote the extension claims on his web page to be a web designer, but if that’s true, then how could he have possibly gotten that been-an-Internet-standard-since-the-nineties thing wrong? Plus, his website has no way to contact him; nor does the options page of his extension. I had to go to his “about me” site to use a web form, limited to 1,000 characters, to contact him.
I’m sorry, but to me it all add’s-up to cluelessness and arrogance.
I’ve disabled the extension; uninstalling it is next. I just want to give it another try for a few days…
…but after I’ve calmed down and have stopped thinking the dev’s an arrogant, imperious idiot.
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Gregg L. DesElms
Napa, California USA
gregg at greggdeselms dot com
Veritas nihil veretur nisi abscondi.
Veritas nimium altercando amittitur.
Im using chromium at work and I need to know the complete URL instantly because I’m web programmer, waiting for it is annoying.
Thanks a lot!
thanks a lot, martin. It is very hard to me to find out (out of 100s of bookmarks) what link I am currently hovering in OSIpage, access application. Link revealer helps a lot.
Thanks, I’m going to try this.
As of today, Chrome Version 33.0.1750.117 m has ceased showing me URLs on hover in the lower-left corner. I have no idea why. I hope Link Revealer will fix it.
DAVE BURTON WROTE: As of today, Chrome Version 33.0.1750.117 has ceased showing me URLs on hover in the lower-left corner.
MY RESPONSE: Even though I use the Chromium-based Chrome look-and-act-alike IRON PORTABLE browser, I have Chrome, IE and Firefox on my machine as well; and having read what you wrote I launched Chrome, checked its version (it’s 33.0.1750.117) and then came, using it, to this web page. I then hovered over about a dozen links on this page, from all parts of it, and every single one showed the truncated URL in the lower-left corner; and then if I held it there for that extra second or so, it showed the entire, untruncated one. Just as it always has.
I wonder if you’ve got an extension or something running that’s goofing it up. Or maybe it’s your mouse driver: I’ve seen that make a difference in such things, too.
Just tryin’ to help.
__________________________________
Gregg L. DesElms
Napa, California USA
gregg at greggdeselms dot com
Veritas nihil veretur nisi abscondi.
Veritas nimium altercando amittitur.
Even after update, I still have this problem. If I restart browser, the URL shows in the bottom corner. But after a few minutes, it goes away. Even as I type this, the URL does not show. I am on Version 33.0.1750.146 m. With many bugs as of late, I might have to look into a way of installing an older version and disabling updates. Either that or back to Firefox I go.
We’ve had the same issue with Chrome, not sure why. I tried a setting change and chrome restart last week, status bar came back, but it’s gone as of this morning. Very strange behavior.
I experienced a similar issue in Chrome Dev. It was resolved after an update, and I assume it is a bug and not a feature.
Thank you Martin. After that I’ve been looking for Opera (21). And it works well.
Thanks nice find! It is working even in “new tab” where I use Speed Dial 2 ;)