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Alistair Edwards. Some facts. Every web page has a unique address(URL) www.something.somewhere/possiblymore URLs are akin to Unix pathnames. Three ways of specifying a URL. Click on a link Click here for more information Type in Obtain from a search engine
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Some facts • Every web page has a unique address(URL) www.something.somewhere/possiblymore • URLs are akin to Unix pathnames
Three ways of specifying a URL • Click on a link • Click here for more information • Type in • Obtain from a search engine • really a combination of the above
Click on a link • Not a problem • Messy details are hidden Click here for details <A HREF=“http://www.cs.york.ac.uk/~alistair/index.html”>Click here</A> for details
Type in • The starting point • Where to get the URL from? • Memory • Imagination • Search engine
Billboards • Football grounds • dcfc.com • sportal.com • Carling.com • fa-carling.com?
Cheap publicity? • Almost unlimited information • …if you can get people to your home page • remember the URL • guess it • Want to go to it
Branding can help • www.ferrari.com • www.magellan.com
www. is just a convention • A dying one?
New TLDs do not help .BIZ - for businesses .INFO - for any website .PRO - for professionals (doctors, lawyers, accountants) .AERO - for airlines .COOP - for non-profit cooperatives .MUSEUM - for museums .NAME - for personal websites
Concatenating words • www.thespuriergatecentre.com • D & A construction • dandaconstruction.com • but at least I remembered it
www.3bp.com • ‘Because all the good ones have already gone’ • Amazon, Yahoo,…
Working with the current system • Problems devising URLs • Limitations of searching
Problems with URLs: Need for uniqueness • All the good, simple single words are taken • Need more words to be specific • How to make them memorable? • How to separate words?
Unlike postal addresses: Department of Computer Studies University of Work York 404: www.cs.work.ac.uk Lack of redundancy
More words - how to separate? • Cannot use dot • unlike email addresses home.truths@bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hometruths Underscore? Capitals web is case-insensitive
How to choose URLs that are • unique • easy to remember • ‘enticing’ • easy to guess(?)
The Magellan solution? • Use common names as directories? • requires regulation
Limitations of search engines • Overload • too many hits • Awkward interfaces for refined queries • Out-of-date links
Searching: the ‘wet ’n’ wild problem’ • 1 Wet 'n Wild - The recognized leader in family water fun!with parks in Orlando, Las Vegas, Cancun • Mexico and Brazil offers the largest variety of world class pulse-pounding multi-passenger rides. • http://www.wetnwild.com/ • 2 Wet 'n Wild - waterskien wakeboard outdoor bedrijfsfeest • Wet 'n Wild, waterski, foods & fun. Is een unieke combinatie van waterskiën, wakeboarden strand een Amerikaans Beach-house, spanning, lol gezelligheid en een hoog party gehalte midden in de... • http://www.wetnwild.nl/ • 3 Wet 'n Wild Women; naked sexy girls in water erotica • wild hot women getting wet for sex erotica porn • http://www.water-girls.com/wet/
Searching: partial solution • Better methods of searching
Any ideas? • Better ways of working with the current system? • A better naming system?