It's basically random bits of webapp memory and protocols splatted onto the screen in a large variety of different encodings. Perhaps you're so used to parsing URLs in your head you don't realise it, but URLs are a baroque and absurd design that nobody without training could properly figure out. But right now the bar is practically designed to look as intimidating and useless as possible.
Now of course not everyone will use the URL bar even if it's redesigned to work correctly. It can't really be improved without totally replacing it with something else like a camera. The side view mirror is simple and performs its function correctly as designed.
Your side view mirror metaphor is unfortunately not clear at all.
And when those accounts got hacked, scamming and sometimes even extortion would follow. Making this change was a recommendation I made to the Chrome team years ago because the number of people who would reliably type in their username and password to a site hosted on hacked web servers (.hk/account_login.php etc) was just so high. As someone who has worked on the front line of the fight against phishing and account takeover in the past, I can assure you and others that you're dead wrong.
