Category Archives: Everyone
Seeing things the way in which one wants them to be (not the way they are)
Throughout history there have been people who only saw things as they wanted them to be. People with strongly held beliefs whose values guided their actions be they counter-productive, detrimental, or worse just plain wrong; nothing mattered but to believe … Continue reading
URL Quote #2: Think about your website’s “public face.”
“…one should take an hour or so and really think about their website’s ‘public face.’” -Scott Hanselman on “A Website’s Public Face“
URL Quote #1: A URL is like a big “YOU ARE HERE” sign
“A URL is like a big “YOU ARE HERE” sign for each page of your site. It should allow people to get a sense of where they are in your site, even if they decide not to use that information … Continue reading
URLQuiz #2: URL Equivalence and Cachability
This is quiz #2 of our ongoing URLQuiz series. In this quiz, there are 26 pairs of URLs (A..Z) and for each pair the questions is: “Which of these two URLs are equivlent?” i.e. which return the same resource when … Continue reading
An Embarrassment of Riches!
Wow. Over the past several days there have been numerous articles about URL design in one format or another, so much so that I’ve not been able to comment on them all in a reasonable amount of time. Rather than … Continue reading
Use rel=”spam” to Fight Comment Spam?
As I was going through my Akismet spam filter today reviewing the 87 comment spam I got during the prior ~24 hours to ensure I didn’t delete any legitimate comments, it occurred to me that maybe there is a simple … Continue reading
Help Expose the URLs that Suck!
Something that would be fun would be to see a list of the top 10 worst designed URLs on the web, a.k.a. URLs that Suck! You know the type, you cringe when you see ‘em, especially if you frequently use … Continue reading
Intro, Part 14: About our URL Structure
For our web applications — our website, wiki, blog, and future forums — we chose to segment each by sub-domain; “wiki.”, “blog.”, and “forums.”, respectively. Rather than having subdirectories underneath the root of our www domain such as “/wiki/”, … Continue reading
Intro, Part 13: The Web Apps We Use
Here’s a run down of the web application software we are using or planning to use for the Well Designed URLs Initiative: Blog At “blog.” is running WordPress using Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP. We have direct experience with WordPress, … Continue reading
Intro, Part 12: Major Topics from Different Angles
One of our plans is look at major topics from many different angles. Though this will allow us to revisit an issue numerous times, our main reason for covering topics in this manner is that making sure our coverage is … Continue reading
Intro, Part 1a: The Unsung URL
NOTE: To see why this is labeled “Part 1a” see [1]. Although many people view the URL to be a rather obscure little creature, the URL is the arguably the most important of the web’s three essential legs; the “First … Continue reading
Happy New Year!
I’m taking the day off but wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year hoping 2007 will be everyone own best year yet!
Ben Coffey and his eBook “Useful URLs”
In the hustle and bustle of these holidays, I didn’t manage to churn out all of my planned posts for our introduction series. So with nothing else to publish today it seems only fitting I introduce you to the works of … Continue reading
Intro, Part 11: Each Post will Identify Audience
Here at the Well Designed URLs Initiative we plan to address a wide audience and cover a plethora of URL-related topics. If it wasn’t obvious from yesterday’s post we plan to publish content for a variety of roles so we … Continue reading
Intro, Part 10: Expect URL Design Advocacy
We’ve already said that we plan to question the status quo, but we want to make that point even stronger; we plan to advocate for positive change. At least one person has already suggested that our activities would be best … Continue reading
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays
I’m taking the day off to observe the holiday that millions of people observe worldwide. Whether you celebrate Christmas or observe some other holiday, it’s my hope that you and your loved ones are happy and healthy this holiday season. See you tomorrow.
Intro, Part 9: Questioning the Web’s Status Quo
Yesterday we said we plan to make recommendations. That may have concerned some, especially those who are involved in the standards process. But don’t worry, we won’t make them in a vacuum; we intend to engage everyone interested to participate … Continue reading
Intro, Part 8: Expect to see Recommendations
One of our main goals is to publish an evolving list of URL Design and related recommendations that the world of web architects, website administrators and web developers will respect and embrace. Our recommendations will include advocacy for, but not … Continue reading
Intro, Part 7: Conventions, not Constraining Requirements
There is a belief among the people who guide the web’s technical architecture, people I like to call the “Weborati“, that as few constraints as possible should be placed on web publishers and web users. This is referred to as the … Continue reading
Intro, Part 6: What makes us URL Design Experts?
So what makes us “the” expert on URL Design as we are not (yet?) associated with any standards body like the W3C or the IETF? Nothing really, other than we have a keen interest in the URL Design and its … Continue reading