URLs · Archive

Simpler Urls Get Used More Than Hideous Ones

Rob Relyea · · Restored archive post · Edited by Muhd Radhi Wahab
Restored from the windows-now.com archive. This post was originally published by Rob Relyea on 7 November 2005. It is reproduced faithfully for its historical and reference value, with the original author and date credited. If you are the author and would like this amended or removed, contact us.

In the background, I've been collecting a list of issues I have with the way that we all use Urls.  I'm working on a Url Manifesto.

 

Here is another bit of supporting information about why people should care about how they use Urls:

I wanted to see how the markets reacted to our last quarterly earnings.  Happy to see we went up a few percent.

I started at MsnSearch (really at search.msn.com, but supports msnsearch.com), typed in MSFT.

Got a sponsored link and a high link to msn moneycentral.

The better of those 2 urls looked like this:
   http://moneycentral.msn.com/detail/stock_quote?Symbol=MSFT

I browsed around some other sites to see what the Urls look like for similar pages.

http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=msft

http://quotes.fool.com/custom/fool/html-news.asp?osymb=&osymbols=MSFT&symbols=msft&currticker=MSFT

I like Yahoo's the best.

 

Using Technorati, you will find that:

Coincidence that the one that people use the most is the simplest URL, I think not...

Are there also other factors, probably...

 

What about Search?

I updated this post after a quick look at 3 main search sites.
Google has some state in the Url (language) but puts the parameter that the user is likely to change at the end.
MSN passes some state in the URI having to do with where the search was conducted.
Yahoo has a lot of state.

Google (9,322 links)
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=charity

MSN (1,016 links)
From Search.Msn.com
http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=charity&FORM=QBHP

From Msn.com
http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=charity&FORM=MSNH&srch_type=0

Yahoo (1,466 links)
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=charity&fr=FP-tab-web-t&toggle=1&cop=&ei=UTF-8
 

Frequently asked

Which stock-quote URL did the author like best, and which was linked most?

He liked Yahoo's the best — http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=msft. Using Technorati he found the web had 1027 links to http://finance.yahoo.com/q, 10 links to http://moneycentral.msn.com/detail/stock_quote, and 0 links to http://quotes.fool.com/custom/fool/html-news.asp.

What point does this post make about URLs?

That simpler URLs get used more than hideous ones — the page people linked to most was also the simplest URL — offered as supporting information for the author's in-progress Url Manifesto.