> If we could perfectly know which URLs have useful semantic information for users and which don't, and then only present those with full semantic meaning, I wouldn't mind much.
That's a very large if, IMO. We cannot do this, practically speaking.
Even in semantically meaningless URLs like the one in your example, there is still an important part of semantics retained and that is identity. By having the URL available you can at least compare two URLs and judge whether they are the same URL or not. Additionally, there is a 1-to-1 association between URL and content: for each unique URL, you get some unique content.
I agree there might be some UX improvement possible here, but faced with the looming threat of Google AMP, it's not a time to twiddle our thumbs and idly fantasize about this without a complete and robust plan on how this improvement might be done.
I also think that by hiding the URL we will make ordinary users even more ignorant about how the web works. It will truly appear like magic, since they will see identical strings in the URL bar yet they will be served different content. How does this even work? No one knows! Expect users that won't even know how to copy a link to someone.
That's a very large if, IMO. We cannot do this, practically speaking.
Even in semantically meaningless URLs like the one in your example, there is still an important part of semantics retained and that is identity. By having the URL available you can at least compare two URLs and judge whether they are the same URL or not. Additionally, there is a 1-to-1 association between URL and content: for each unique URL, you get some unique content.
I agree there might be some UX improvement possible here, but faced with the looming threat of Google AMP, it's not a time to twiddle our thumbs and idly fantasize about this without a complete and robust plan on how this improvement might be done.
I also think that by hiding the URL we will make ordinary users even more ignorant about how the web works. It will truly appear like magic, since they will see identical strings in the URL bar yet they will be served different content. How does this even work? No one knows! Expect users that won't even know how to copy a link to someone.