Microsoft will completely hide the Microsoft Edge browser HTTPS icon

In the past few years, many technology giants, including Google, have joined forces to push the HTTPS encrypted transmission protocol. According to the Google Transparency Report, in January 2014, HTTPS traffic accounted for 50% of the entire network traffic, and by 2018 the proportion has reached 95%. The current HTTPS traffic proportion has stabilized and is always around 95%, which means that it is extremely large. Most websites and services have adopted HTTPS encrypted transmission.

In order to promote HTTPS, Google is adopting a very aggressive strategy, using the extremely high market share of the Chrome browser. When the website does not support HTTPS, Chrome will display insecure in the address bar. On the contrary, if HTTPS is used, it will display secure. It wasn’t until last year that Chrome deleted the word “secure” and replaced it with a lock sign, and HTTP websites will still be displayed as insecure.

A user on the Reddit forum found that the Microsoft Edge canary version is currently testing this feature. After this feature is enabled, the HTTPS website address bar will replace the lock icon (in the address bar) with a down arrow. However, Microsoft did not make an announcement on the matter, and may just select a small number of users for testing to collect user feedback.

Of course, Microsoft really likes to use the so-called A/B comparison test, that is, to push specific functions to some users for testing. Chrome never conducts comparison tests, as long as users are willing, they can open it through experimental options. Therefore, although we also installed the Edge Canary version, we did not experience this feature.