Mozilla follows Google and Opera and has decided to nix the http:// URL prefix in the location bar.

Mozilla’s most recent nightly releases of Firefox (version 7) do not show the common URL protocol prefix http:// anymore and automatically hides trailing single slashes in a URL. Google canceled the prefix in a rather controversial move more than one year ago with the release of Chrome 5.

Like Google, Mozilla also highlights the core URL (server ID or host) and de-emphasizes the tail (resource ID) of the URL through the use of light grey text coloring. However, Mozilla also shows the common “www” (or subdomain) portion in grey color. The purpose of this move is to give the actual domain name stronger visibility and allow the user to quickly understand the current location of the browser on the web.

There has been some criticism that the deletion of the protocol prefix could result in some confusion and security issues as the user may not be able to immediately identify whether a website is secure or not. As a result, both Chrome and Firefox display secure URLs with a visible https:// prefix. Opera goes a step further and hides the prefix, but shows a “secure” logo in front of the URL. Opera always shows the prefix of a URL as soon as the user selects the URL in the location bar.

Mozilla said that this feature is added to Firefox 7 to follow Opera’s and Chrome’s lead.

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