For more information, search online..

slylittlefox · 28 May 2009 at 21:51

daz said:
I hate when companies decide to setup their webserver with only the www. A record, and not the root record, i.e. http://www.thesite.com works, but http://thesite.com doesn't... it takes two seconds and will make people a lot happier.

This is also a pet peeve of mine. I told a friend he was guilty of this the other day and he told me not to be lazy. =/

Vonhelmet · 28 May 2009 at 21:53

slylittlefox said:
This is also a pet peeve of mine. I told a friend he was guilty of this the other day and he told me not to be lazy. =/

I work in tax and it infuriates me that hmrc.gov.uk doesn't work.

Mattus · 28 May 2009 at 22:06

vonhelmet said:
Similarly, if you want to go to the DVLA website, you type in dvla.gov.uk. How is it quicker to type in DVLA into Google, wait for the result to come back, scan the links then click the appropriate one?

Because to type the URL you first have to remember it. You're assuming technical knowledge which you take for granted but which most people don't have. You understand what the URL means - you know that the .gov.uk is a top-level domain, that the dvla is a domain underneath it, and that the periods delineate the parts. Without that familiarity, the URL is much less meaningful and harder to remember.

Here's an analogy. If I asked you to remember an English person's full name, you'd probably do it fairly easily, because you know what English names generally look like and what the popular ones are. If I asked you to remember a Japanese person's full name, it would be much more challenging, because you're not familiar with Japanese naming conventions. That's why many people struggle to remember URLs unless they're very basic.

rypt · 28 May 2009 at 22:56

Mattus said:
Because to type the URL you first have to remember it. You're assuming technical knowledge which you take for granted but which most people don't have. You understand what the URL means - you know that the .gov.uk is a top-level domain, that the dvla is a domain underneath it, and that the periods delineate the parts. Without that familiarity, the URL is much less meaningful and harder to remember.

Here's an analogy. If I asked you to remember an English person's full name, you'd probably do it fairly easily, because you know what English names generally look like and what the popular ones are. If I asked you to remember a Japanese person's full name, it would be much more challenging, because you're not familiar with Japanese naming conventions. That's why many people struggle to remember URLs unless they're very basic.

How many years has the internet been around? In all that time surely the human race must have been able to learn the very basics - else how did we ever evolve?

matt_fsr · 29 May 2009 at 11:41

rypt said:
How many years has the internet been around? In all that time surely the human race must have been able to learn the very basics - else how did we ever evolve?

If the average person in the street, given several years of compulsory education and being taught to read and write, as well as a good 10 years of popular internet usage can't remember a reasonably simple URL - then we must be evolving backwards, thats the only thing I can think of to explain it.

K.C. Leblanc · 29 May 2009 at 11:46

It's because no one has noticed the more you mollycobble the stupid and the lazy the stupider and lazier they become.

I actualy spoke to a organisation the other day and the operator couldn't actualy give me the the web address,they told me to search google. Since I was after details for making complains I will now be making two.

[TW]Fox · 29 May 2009 at 11:47

Mattus said:
Because to type the URL you first have to remember it. You're assuming technical knowledge which you take for granted but which most people don't have. You understand what the URL means - you know that the .gov.uk is a top-level domain, that the dvla is a domain underneath it, and that the periods delineate the parts. Without that familiarity, the URL is much less meaningful and harder to remember.

But until very recently we've been more than capable of being told that 'To find out more about car tax, visit DVLA.gov.uk'.

It's only of late we've got this retarded dumbed-down cater to the idiots approach. Sigh.

rypt · 29 May 2009 at 11:48

K.C. Leblanc said:
I actualy spoke to a organisation the other day and the operator couldn't actualy give me the the web address,they told me to search google.

Epic

CaptainComedy · 29 May 2009 at 12:10

well its logical that if you dont know the web address you search for the company name - always pulls up the result, but to encourage the customer to get results where your competitor will be listed is quite possibly the most stupid thing I have heard.

thats like ocuk telling us "search for cheap computer parts"

alex24 · 29 May 2009 at 12:28

[TW]Fox;14170006 said:
But until very recently we've been more than capable of being told that 'To find out more about car tax, visit DVLA.gov.uk'.

It's only of late we've got this retarded dumbed-down cater to the idiots approach. Sigh.

It's extremely depressing, but I guess that's how companies and organisations think they need to do to get through to today's society. It does seem like everything is dumbed down for the widest audience, can't help but think it's a result of all this PC **** that's hit the UK gradually.

Liquidfox · 29 May 2009 at 12:35

I remember seeing an advert that said Search for somethingsomething, only to find out that it wasn't even on the first page of results

D D Danneh · 29 May 2009 at 12:39

If I visit a website often, I'll bookmark it.

Anything else, I search. Unless I know the URL to it, or if I'm on a computer without my bookmarks.

Whatever is quickest.

DampCat · 29 May 2009 at 12:54

Mattus said:
I must be getting old, because 'http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=14167320&posted=1#post14167320' means very little to my brain. Of course, I know what it means, but it isn't associated with the page in any way that would help me remember it. Typing 'search online' into my Firefox location bar is much more useful.

The point is that people want to type what they're looking for, rather than wasting brain power using an unnecessary conduit.

You're giving a twisted example.

dvla.gov.uk is representative of forums.overclockers.co.uk, which are both easy to remember.

'http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=14167320&posted=1#post14167320' is representative of http://dvla.go.uk/help.php?=topic14 which are both completely unnecessary and not required to get to the website, only to a very specific part that can be accessed via the usual navigation using a mouse.

Cosimo · 29 May 2009 at 13:06

[TW]Fox;14166555 said:
Why is society so dumb

If only someone could answer that.

a1ex2001 · 29 May 2009 at 13:09

[TW]Fox;14166555 said:
Why is society so dumb

Society isn't necessarily dumb it's just convenience orientated, people use google as the interface to the web these days and big companies are picking up on this.

Obviosuly there are plenty of dumb people out there, but even clever IT literate people rely on google massively for finding the right info.

LordSplodge · 29 May 2009 at 13:11

p4radox said:
URLs are gobbledegook to 90% of the population. But 90% of the population know how to search for stuff.

AcidHell2 said:
Because people can't remember and might spell it wrong. Search engines are a safer bet.

Sums it up nicely.

I'm an IT professional (don't laugh) and I use key words in Google rather than faff about with domain names.

I use Delicious for stuff I go to on a regular basis like here...

a1ex2001 · 29 May 2009 at 13:11

DampCat said:
You're giving a twisted example.

dvla.gov.uk is representative of forums.overclockers.co.uk, which are both easy to remember.

'http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=14167320&posted=1#post14167320' is representative of http://dvla.go.uk/help.php?=topic14 which are both completely unnecessary and not required to get to the website, only to a very specific part that can be accessed via the usual navigation using a mouse.

It's not a twisted example, if you search fro raod tax on google.co.uk the first link is the road tax specific website not dvla.gov.uk thus bypassing all the intermediate navigation steps.

People want to use natural language on the internet it's been the case ever since it went mass market.

rypt · 29 May 2009 at 13:13

a1ex2001 said:
People want to use natural language on the internet it's been the case ever since it went mass market.

so how is tax.dvla.gov.uk not natural language?

It is .. TAX paid to the DVLA who are part of the GOVernment of the UK.

It's not my fault DVLA have not learnt how to use subdomains.

And for the record ... "road tax" on Google takes you to direct.gov.uk and not even DVLA website (which is correct I guess - but why do you need to have direct.gov.uk when dvla.gov.uk could do the job just as well?)

DampCat · 29 May 2009 at 13:15

a1ex2001 said:
It's not a twisted example, if you search fro raod tax on google.co.uk the first link is the road tax specific website not dvla.gov.uk thus bypassing all the intermediate navigation steps.

People want to use natural language on the internet it's been the case ever since it went mass market.

You seem to have completely missed the example that i'm accusing of being twisted.