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Comment by adithyassekhar | Hacker News Reader

I've been missing so many downloads due to this. Bottom bar is better. What kind of tests did they do to decide the top placement was better?

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I generally don't get why the bottom space is not used anymore. Long time ago every browser had a fixed status bar on bottom that could be used to show metrics. The url tooltip on the bottom on hover is a remnant of this.

With the plague of 16:9 screens, that began around 2008, on cheaper devices often coming with a resolution of 1366x768, vertical screen space started to come with a premium.

> I generally don't get why the bottom space is not used anymore. Long time ago every browser had a fixed status bar on bottom that could be used to show metrics.

We are talking about the company considering removing the URL from the address bar[0] so I'm not sure why they would want to provide more information for the user in the status bar. I expect they will tell you you just don't need it[1].

[0] https://www.androidpolice.com/2020/08/13/google-resumes-its-...

[1] https://support.google.com/chrome/thread/58833523/bottom-sta...

Bottom bar forces you to drag your cursor in a part of the screen you rarely goes. Also saving vertical space makes sense in an era of wide screens.

Personally, I have no difficulty navigating to different parts of my screen, and I don't consider it saving space if it removes something I actually want to be prominent.

However, I can see your point, and the design probably be more approachable if I had a higher-end computer with a good screen.

It is not difficult, it is just a movement less traveled for non windows user in general.

agreed. i've specifically disabled it. unfortunately i imagine the option will dissapear eventualy.

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