{"id":39205,"date":"2013-10-15T14:37:48","date_gmt":"2013-10-15T20:37:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/15\/whither-the-url.html"},"modified":"2013-10-15T14:37:48","modified_gmt":"2013-10-15T20:37:48","slug":"whither-the-url","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/15\/whither-the-url.html","title":{"rendered":"Whither the URL?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Website addresses (URLs, or "Universal Resource Locators") have a limited utility for the average user. \u00a0They beat the heck out of actual IP addresses (both in usability and identifiability), but nobody actually likes typing \u00a0more than a basic domain at most.<\/p>\n

Of course, URLs provide not just an (easier) mode of input, but an identifier of the source of the content. \u00a0An article cite that shows as being at foxnews.com<\/a> will be considered differently from one at reuters.com<\/a> or worldnetdaily.com<\/a>. \u00a0An invitation to take a survey that's at surveymonkey.com<\/a> will probably garner a different reaction from me than an invitation pointing at getrichrealquick.com<\/a>. \u00a0I will be more likely to check out a video at work that's at youtube.com<\/a>, or executiveconferenceboard.com<\/a> than one at hotbazongas.com<\/a>. (Yes, these things can be spoofed, or masked, but \u00a0in many case, perhaps less extreme, they remain useful data.)<\/p>\n

But as far as input tools, URLs are inconvenient to use beyond just the main domain, at most. Though maybe I'm weird — I'll still type "facebook.com<\/a>" on the address line of the browser rather than search for "facebook\u00a0login" (on those rare occasions I visit Facebook). \u00a0On the other hand, I keep a lot of tabs open, and have a lot of things bookmarked, as another way to approach this issue.<\/p>\n

I suspect the eventual answer is improvements in voice commands (a la Siri) for computers (which will need some tech improvements to use in an office setting), as well as smart contexts (every morning I go to xyz.com<\/a>, so the browser shows that as a tab to go to around that time of day) will reduce the need for users to even go to Google to search for the place they want to go.<\/div>\n

\n

Embedded Link<\/strong><\/p>\n

Will the URL Go the Way of the AOL Keyword?<\/a>
\n This post originally appeared on the Text Patterns blog on the New Atlantis. Interesting little comment by Nicholson Baker about something he does in his new novel: The odd thing about the reaction to this book is that almost everybody is most interested in the fact that I included a…\n <\/p>\n

View this post on Google+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Website addresses (URLs, or "Universal Resource Locators") have a limited utility for the average user. \u00a0They beat the heck out of actual IP addresses (both in usability and identifiability), but nobody actually likes typing \u00a0more than a basic domain at most. Of course, URLs provide not just an (easier) mode of input, but an identifier … Continue reading “Whither the URL?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4754,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/01\/12\/spam_strategies.html","url_meta":{"origin":39205,"position":0},"title":"Spam strategies","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 12-Jan-04 11:10am","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been having pretty good success with MT-Blacklist in blocking (or removing) comment spam. The approach it takes is interesting. Rather than trying to track IP addresses (which can be...","rel":"","context":"In "Spam"","block_context":{"text":"Spam","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/computer-security\/spam"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":130425,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/14\/cracking-shortened-urls-has-some-weirdly-scary-results.html","url_meta":{"origin":39205,"position":1},"title":"Cracking shortened URLs has some weirdly scary results","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 14-Apr-16 10:44pm","format":false,"excerpt":"URL shorteners remain a big thing, if only because some sites have crazy-awful URLs that they generate, and URL shorteners make it a lot easier to cut-and-paste those links in.[1]But some researchers have found that when you create such a link, it somehow (through the magic of bit.ly, for example),\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5005,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/11\/17\/frell.html","url_meta":{"origin":39205,"position":2},"title":"Frell","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 17-Nov-03 3:02pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Looks like comment spam is beginning to seep in here. Over the last week, I've had four or five comments pop up that were innocuous \"Hey, nice post\" types of...","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging & Internet"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging & Internet","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28904,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/08\/13\/simple-google-plus-profile-names.html","url_meta":{"origin":39205,"position":3},"title":"Simple Google Plus profile names","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 13-Aug-12 12:07pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, it's about time Google got around to this, though http:\/\/google.com\/+davehill47 isn't activated ... yet.Reshared post from +Saurabh SharmaCustom URLs for profiles and pages: a first stepYour Google+ profile is a place for you to share your passions with the millions of people who come to Google each day. Whether\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":136896,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/09\/04\/killing-the-url.html","url_meta":{"origin":39205,"position":4},"title":"Killing the URL (kinda)","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 4-Sep-18 1:30pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Whoosh. I agree, coming up with some alternative that provides the services an URL and its display do (from understanding where you are to noting what options are being passed to being able to cut and paste pieces of it), in a fashion that will serve all the users of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/killing-url.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1640,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/12\/02\/more_stats_stuf.html","url_meta":{"origin":39205,"position":5},"title":"More stats stuff you probably don’t want to read about","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 2-Dec-01 8:45am","format":false,"excerpt":"Stats4All doesn't do a good job (in sifting through their reports) of showing me referring URLs, so I'm changing this page to SiteMeter, hence the change in the little logo....","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging & Internet"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging & Internet","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39205\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}