Are you going to tune in?

Do you have reminders of things you need to do, or written inspirational quotes on a sticky note on your screen or desk?

Maybe you’ve pinned things on your wall. Be it reminders or photos of loved ones.

But no matter how powerful or important the quote or person is to you, overtime, they’ll just become part of the wallpaper or furniture, and you won’t even notice them.

And this will more than likely apply to something that’s been staring at you these last few weeks… if you’ve been using Google Chrome or Brave to browse the internet that is…

In case you haven’t noticed already, both of these apps have done away with the traditional padlock icon that you usually see before the website address…

The padlock above, has now been replaced by the following tune icon…

You may be asking, what is the point of this, and how will it benefit me? Good question.

Ever since the launch of the Netscape browser many years ago, the padlock has been used to indicate to the end user, if the website was safe or not.

But with the vast majority of websites (including the fake ones) having a padlock to supposedly indicate that the site is secure, this no longer served a purpose.

Google’s own research revealed that the lock icon misleads users into a false sense of security.

The lock icon doesn’t mean that a website is safe. It only indicates that the connection from your computer or device to the website is secure.

Users incorrectly assume that the lock icon means the site is safe and therefore automatically trust the site they’re visiting.

That’s a potentially harmful perception because phishing and malware sites commonly display the lock icon.

Google states that the new tune icon…

> Does not imply “trustworthy”.

> Is more obviously clickable.

> Is commonly associated with settings or other controls.

It’s their way of getting people to click on the new tune icon rather than accept a site as trustworthy.

Personally, I don’t see it as improving the users’ experience. It might encourage users to click on the icon on websites they haven’t visited before, but only time will tell if it’s a good step forward or if it’s something that will just blend into the background, just like your sticky notes.