Ok folks, this needs to end! The URL is (for example) “www dot themagazine dot com” not www dot the magazine, all one word dot com. There are no spaces in URLs, everyone knows this, stop it.
Michael Sauers is currently the Director of Technology for Do Space in Omaha, NE. Michael has been training librarians in technology for the past twenty years and has also been a public library trustee, a bookstore manager for a library friends group, a reference librarian, serials cataloger, technology consultant, and bookseller since earning his MLS in 1995 from the University at Albany’s School of Information Science and Policy. Michael has also written dozens of articles for various journals and magazines and his fourteenth book, Emerging Technologies: A Primer for Librarians (w/ Jennifer Koerber) was published in May 2015 and more books are on the way. In his spare time he blogs at travelinlibrarian.info, runs The Collector’s Guide to Dean Koontz Web site, takes many, many photos, and typically reads more than 100 books a year.
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2 Replies to “Speaking URLs”
Ok, I’m guilty of that, but it’s my way of saying that the words are all run together with no underscores between them. If a URL doesn’t start with a www I also find myself explicitly pointing that out. Yeah, a lot of people don’t need that explanation, but a surprising number do. And sure as shooting, as soon as I make an assumption and leave those explanations out, I wind up getting a phone call from someone who can’t get a URL I spoke to them to work. (For instance, my mom, who on a related note spent years typing URLs into the Search box on her browser toolbar as opposed to the Address box.)
I’d admit the “no www” thing is an issue that needs to be pointed out (though I wish it didn’t need to be). I recall telling people to go to “firstsearch.oclc.org” and having people go to “www.firstsearch.oclc.org” despite that not being what I said. I’ve also seen the search box as address bar, and the opposite, which is also an educational issue. However, I’ve never seen someone put a space in the middle of a URL when the domain has multiple words in it. I’m not saying it’s never done but in almost 15 years if teaching the Net, it’s never happened to me.
Ok, I’m guilty of that, but it’s my way of saying that the words are all run together with no underscores between them. If a URL doesn’t start with a www I also find myself explicitly pointing that out. Yeah, a lot of people don’t need that explanation, but a surprising number do. And sure as shooting, as soon as I make an assumption and leave those explanations out, I wind up getting a phone call from someone who can’t get a URL I spoke to them to work. (For instance, my mom, who on a related note spent years typing URLs into the Search box on her browser toolbar as opposed to the Address box.)
I’d admit the “no www” thing is an issue that needs to be pointed out (though I wish it didn’t need to be). I recall telling people to go to “firstsearch.oclc.org” and having people go to “www.firstsearch.oclc.org” despite that not being what I said. I’ve also seen the search box as address bar, and the opposite, which is also an educational issue. However, I’ve never seen someone put a space in the middle of a URL when the domain has multiple words in it. I’m not saying it’s never done but in almost 15 years if teaching the Net, it’s never happened to me.