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Burying the URL

allenpike.com

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Re: Burying the URL

#31

Post by muaddirac »

This idea (or at least, where this idea could lead) is actually a far more RESTful approach to the web. REST services should offer a single entry point - the root url - and the rest of a service's content should be navigated to through hypermedia affordances.

The advantages are clear: the user never hits a broken page (theoretically) or finds that content has been relocated.

The disadvantages are also clear: no more bookmarks, no more simple sharing.

Hypermedia APIs attempt to address this problem to a degree with various forms of CURIEs[0]. It could be interesting to see a web based on that (imagine href="hn:threads:buying-the-url").

[0]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CURIE

Re: Burying the URL

#32

Post by rasz_pl »

cgore wrote: post #25
Swizec wrote: post #19

As a power user, the only time I care about URL's is when copy-pasting and when developing web apps. I like to explicitly know what I'm copy pasting. It offends my personal sensibilities to make websites with ugly links. Other than that ... I don't know. I can't decide how I feel about this, but I can't help but think that I really don't care about the URL being accessible. Not like I ever do anything with it.

And that has got to be the most irritating thing about Google these days, they mangle the URLs in their search results to the point where I can't get a clean URL sometimes, at least not without some real work. http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd... Instead of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_resource_locator Is really irritating.

http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/47300

Re: Burying the URL

#33

Post by userbinator »

cgore wrote: post #25
Swizec wrote: post #19

As a power user, the only time I care about URL's is when copy-pasting and when developing web apps. I like to explicitly know what I'm copy pasting. It offends my personal sensibilities to make websites with ugly links. Other than that ... I don't know. I can't decide how I feel about this, but I can't help but think that I really don't care about the URL being accessible. Not like I ever do anything with it.

And that has got to be the most irritating thing about Google these days, they mangle the URLs in their search results to the point where I can't get a clean URL sometimes, at least not without some real work. http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd... Instead of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_resource_locator Is really irritating.

This is one of the cases where a userscript or filter proxy is really useful.

There's some interesting cookie-looking values in those URL parameters too, not sure if there's anything privacy-critical in them but it's still a bit of a concern.

Re: Burying the URL

#35

Post by rhizome »

Swizec wrote: post #19

As a power user, the only time I care about URL's is when copy-pasting and when developing web apps. I like to explicitly know what I'm copy pasting. It offends my personal sensibilities to make websites with ugly links. Other than that ... I don't know. I can't decide how I feel about this, but I can't help but think that I really don't care about the URL being accessible. Not like I ever do anything with it.

Not like I ever do anything with it.

Well that's nice, but some of us still have (e.g.) parents to help over the phone. Not to mention the address/URL/etc. field is an important part of computer literacy.

Re: Burying the URL

#38

Post by Swizec »

StefanKarpinski wrote: post #26
Swizec wrote: post #19

As a power user, the only time I care about URL's is when copy-pasting and when developing web apps. I like to explicitly know what I'm copy pasting. It offends my personal sensibilities to make websites with ugly links. Other than that ... I don't know. I can't decide how I feel about this, but I can't help but think that I really don't care about the URL being accessible. Not like I ever do anything with it.

> the only time I care about URL's is when copy-pasting This is like saying the only time I care about electricity is when I need to power something. The fact that there's a universal textual way to refer to and link everything – like via copy and paste – is precisely why the web is so powerful.

More like "the only time I care about electricity is when taking a battery from one device and putting it in another".

If there was a way to tell Chrome "Share this website on Skype to this person" or "Send this to this-or-that IRC channel" I would never care about the URL. The only reason I interact with it is because I want to share the page with someone specific (rather than using a spamming/sharing widget).

But I never manipulate the URL directly, or care about its specific parts.

Hell, if there was a keyboard shortcut for "put reference to current page on copypaste stack" I'd never click the URL at all.

Re: Burying the URL

#39

Post by evv »

Swizec wrote: post #19

As a power user, the only time I care about URL's is when copy-pasting and when developing web apps. I like to explicitly know what I'm copy pasting. It offends my personal sensibilities to make websites with ugly links. Other than that ... I don't know. I can't decide how I feel about this, but I can't help but think that I really don't care about the URL being accessible. Not like I ever do anything with it.

What about when you buy something online or log in to a web site?

Do you not check the url before you give out your credit card details and website passwords?

Re: Burying the URL

#40

Post by zobzu »

mewks wrote: post #24
userbinator wrote: post #12

I somewhat expected this, given the trend of where things seem to be heading with software these days. In the name of "usability" configuration is removed, UIs are "simplified", and gradually the choice and freedom of the user is degraded. Opportunities to make mistakes and learn from them, or to explore and discover, a chance for users to grow . Dumbing-down software only encourages more of the same. The "senior try…

You seem to assume that people are looking to learn and grow their computer abilities. Learning takes an open mind, which isn't the case for most people. Ease of use enables the user to perform actions with more impact. Think of it as Python vs C. You need a lot more knowledge to get started with C, but you can customize almost every aspect of your program. With Python, you lose some customizability, but you can do a…

my fear is that the chrome flag will eventually go away entierely
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