I was getting ready to post a rant about how this violates the principles of the web, but I actually can't think of any principle that says you have to show URLs all the time. The earliest browsers probably didn't. I'm sure you will still be able to enter URLs through some popup widget.
Ultimately, if people can't read URLs then there's no great value in shoving it in their face. We might as well use that space for something they do understand. If it showed just the domain or SSL creds, users might pay more attention to them since they wouldn't be buried in noise from the rest of the URL.
I'm not happy that Google search is effectively replacing the DNS as the web's canonical index, but that has been happening for a while and it's driven by a very real user need. I would consider hiding the address bar an effect rather than a cause.
Ultimately, if people can't read URLs then there's no great value in shoving it in their face. We might as well use that space for something they do understand. If it showed just the domain or SSL creds, users might pay more attention to them since they wouldn't be buried in noise from the rest of the URL.
I'm not happy that Google search is effectively replacing the DNS as the web's canonical index, but that has been happening for a while and it's driven by a very real user need. I would consider hiding the address bar an effect rather than a cause.