URL Masking, Good or Bad?

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

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  Michael Martinez: Can you describe what you mean by "URL masking"?
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  Nathan Nikolay Gaidy: Domain masking or URL masking is the act of hiding the actual domain name of a website from the URL field of a user`s web browser in favor of another name.
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  Michael Martinez: Nathan Nikolay Gaidy Yes .. but HOW are you doing that because there is more than one day to do it. Are you rewriting the URLs in the browser or using frames?
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  Nathan Nikolay Gaidy: Michael Martinez Google Domains CNAME or Domain Forwarding.
  
  Wouldn`t work?
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  Michael Martinez: Nathan Nikolay Gaidy I think this would be more trouble than it`s worth, although you could rewrite what is displayed in the browser address bar. That is (I think) something that Google`s AMP does.
  
  So, I would say more bad than good, but only because I`d rather just host the content on the domain itself.
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  Nathan Nikolay Gaidy: Michael Martinez So using longer URLs (using Google Sites) is not so bad?
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  Michael Martinez: Nathan Nikolay Gaidy It`s not bad for SEO. It does make it harder to brand a site`s address - to create something memorable that people type directly into address bars or recommend in online discussions.
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  Nathan Nikolay Gaidy: Michael Martinez So masking is okay as long as I have an SSL?
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  Michael Martinez: Nathan Nikolay Gaidy Asking if something is "good" or "bad" or "okay" / "not okay" implies there are limits or a scope of approval for it.
  
  As far as search engine optimization is concerned, I don`t know of any guidelines that it violates.
  
  But as far as user experience goes it`s a goody way of publishing a Website. Only the site owner cares about the URL. Most people don`t pay attention to them. But you`ll be using an optical illusion, as it were, to present a pretty URL either at the start or the end of the page load.
  
  I just don`t see the point, although 20 years ago I actually did that for various reasons.
  
  It`s what is important to you that matters. But if you`re looking for a benefit that leads to more traffic for a site, I don`t think there is one.
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  Jacob Fitzpatrick: Breaks SSL standards. No go.
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  Nathan Nikolay Gaidy: Jacob Fitzpatrick So URL Masking by Google Domains that includes SSL is not good?
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  Nathan Nikolay Gaidy: I thought it`s okay
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  Marcus Sonntag: Valid agrument from J.Fitzpatrick.
  But I wound say, it depends on the method.
  You need to clearify what you are planing to implement, or better what you are trying to accomplish.
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  Nathan Nikolay Gaidy: Marcus Sonntag I am wondering if using the mask with path forwarding is better than without?
  
  The custom domain (mask) is much shorter.