ASPeers, can we agree to stop this shit?
-
@joe.edwards said:
The URL of CMS.aspx?id=6 yields zero information to either user or search engine. Look at that URL in your browser history and tell me where it goes. Why does the user need to know it's .aspx, or for that matter the ID of the page? It's an implementation detail. What if the platform changes, will all the bookmarked links and inbound links break (hint: yes)?
I think URLs are a good way to judge general quality of a website. It's a small detail that in theory shouldn't matter, so it's a way to tell if a team actually designed a good system from the bottom-up or if they just took a turd and polished it until it looked acceptable (thus ignoring small things like this).Case in point: the address to download drivers for an HP printer is "http://h20180.www2.hp.com/apps/Nav?h_pagetype=s-001&h_lang=en&h_cc=us&h_product=236252&h_client=S-A-R163-1&h_page=hpcom&lang=en&cc=us".
-
@spamcourt said:
Case in point: the address to download drivers for an HP printer is
And the url for a track on last.fm is http://www.last.fm/music/Mogwai/Mr.+Beast/Travel+Is+Dangerous
There's a difference, however, that I think absolves the HP site. The site is huge and generic and must accomodate everything from a simple contact form to product specs to driver selection and download. It probably has some third-party CMS and a few other in-house web apps to deliver all its content. It's a major hassle to create a logical internally consistent URL scheme for the entire site and I don't think it's worth the trouble for HP.
last.fm, on the other hand has a narrow focus and it's less of a problem to design a working human-friendly URL scheme that always makes sense. In fact, like with Wikipedia, I usually just type in the address bar what artist or music I want instead of clicking on links.
-
@dhromed said:
There's a difference, however, that I think absolves the HP site. The site is huge and generic and must accomodate everything from a simple contact form to product specs to driver selection and download.
Microsoft's site is huge and they somehow managed to make URLs like http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/eng/downloads look okay and work as expected.
-
I always used CNN as my "good URL" example. The URLs follow the inverse-pyramid theory of journalism, so sometimes seeing the URL is enough info and you don't even need to read the page.
Peru gang targets people stuck in traffic | CNN
Police have caught a group of alleged thieves accused of stealing more than $46,000 since mid-January from commuters stuck in traffic in Peru’s capital city, Lima.
-
@blakeyrat said:
CNN
Good example. I also like sites with urls such as http://www.example.com/some_human_readable_stuff_that's_always_ignored/123456 - as long as they're implemented correctly and redirect if the human readable part is incorrect.
-
@configurator said:
@blakeyrat said:
CNN
Good example. I also like sites with urls such as http://www.example.com/some_human_readable_stuff_that's_always_ignored/123456 - as long as they're implemented correctly and redirect if the human readable part is incorrect.
Personally, I prefer putting the ID first so it still works if (when) the URL gets chopped off in the middle. Added bonus: chopping off the end of a URL becomes a method of URL shortening.
