Assigned

Bug

Status Update

No update yet.

Description

ch...@google.com

created issue on behalf of kl...@gmail.com #1

Mar 6, 2025 06:44AM

Steps to reproduce the problem

Because of :visited links partitioning(https://chromestatus.com/feature/5101991698628608), URLs added to history by chrome.history.addUrl() method are now considered as not really visited and are not colored as :visited. In some use cases it is really necessary to be able to add fully visited URL to history. Is it possible to provide possibility to add fully visited URL by this method? For example with second parameter chrome.history.addUrl({ url: SOME_URL }, { isFullyVisited: true }). Maybe only with additional permission like 'extraHistory'.

Problem Description

Chrome extensions can't add fully visited URL to history.

Summary

[Feature request][Extensions API] Allow adding fully visited URLs via chrome.history.addUrl() method

Custom Questions

Which component does this fall under?

Not sure - I don't know

Does this work in other browsers?

Not sure - I don't know

Additional Data

Category: API
Chrome Channel: Stable
Regression: Yes

Comments

pe...@google.com <pe...@google.com> #2Mar 6, 2025 10:40PM

The issue's primary component must be in the Component Tags, so re-adding it. To change the primary component, use the edit button at the top of the issue, just above the title.

di...@chromium.org <di...@chromium.org> #3Mar 6, 2025 10:42PM

Assigned to ky...@chromium.org.

kyra@, could you help take a look? Thank you

ky...@chromium.org <ky...@chromium.org> #4Mar 7, 2025 03:02PM

Will do - thank you for reassigning!

rb...@chromium.org <rb...@chromium.org> #5Mar 7, 2025 08:51PM

@reporter, I'd love to understand your use case here, can you elaborate on the user value you're trying to provide? Is there a specific extension in the store you can point to that depends on this?

The theory behind visited links partitioning is that when a user is on one site (like example.com) what web pages they have visited in unrelated contexts is entirely irrelevant (and actively a privacy threat if example.com can learn it). So Chrome just no longer exposes any concept of "fully visited" to web pages only "previously visited from your origin".

So maybe it would make more sense to add an extension API like chrome.history.addUrl(visistedUrl, sourceOrigin)?

Said another way, with visited links partitioning we now believe it would be safe for us to have a javascript API exposed to all web pages like "hasBeenVisitedFromHere(url)" (actually such an API already effectively exists due to the various side-channel attacks). With such an API existing, how could you possibly use the feature you're proposing in a way that wouldn't result in a privacy leak?

Message last modified on Mar 7, 2025 08:53PM

kl...@gmail.com <kl...@gmail.com> #6Mar 8, 2025 12:10PM

Extension mentioned here

https://issues.chromium.org/issues/400338976 depends on this and will soon stop working. Extension is very handy and saves a huge amount of time on some sites. Users use it this way: user visits some site for the first time. Site has some unvisited links, each can represent piece of news, some post, article, video and so on. User looks through all links and finds some interesting links and opens them in separate tabs with a middle click. These links now look visited(if site has the same color for visited and unvisited links, user also uses another extension like Stylus to make visited links look different). Other links are not interesting for user. User can manually click them all to make them look visited, but user has extension! User activates extension and all links become visited instantly. User is happy. Why? Because when later user will return to this site, there probably will be some new unvisited links, and so user will know that only these links are really new and are worth paying attention. User now does not need to look through all links but only through these several unvisited links! This will save a lot of time.

chrome.history.addUrl(visistedUrl, sourceOrigin) looks good! But according to documentation here

https://chromestatus.com/feature/5101991698628608 'VisitedLinks hashtable is now partitioned via "triple-keying", or by storing the following for each visited link: <link URL, top-level site, frame origin>.' So maybe chrome.history.addUrl({link URL}, top-level site, frame origin)?

Privacy leak is bad, but user trusts extension. User accepted it permissions and installed it to avoid performing tedious tasks. I just want that instead of manually clicking links just to make them look visited, user would be able to just click extension icon and extension(with upgraded chrome.history.addUrl() method and maybe also with additional permission like 'extraHistory') would perform all tedious operations. If privacy leak will happen after that, there should be no difference if links where really clicked or added to history by extension.