On Thu, 20 Sep 2001, Brian Kelly wrote:
> Some arguments against your suggestion.
>
> URL naming matters because:
>
> o Dynamic URLs may not be indexed
> o Search engines don't (didn't?) index everything, and will stop
> before going too deeply down a hierarchy
> o URLs will be cited (spoken, included in references, etc.) so short,
> memorable ones will be better (e.g. compare URLs for archives of
> JISCmail and Mailbase).
> o URLs will be used in branding and advertising.
>
> I appreciate that you will have valid technical and political reasons -
> there are arguments on both sides.
(Sorry, delayed response!)
FWIW, I wrote a discussion paper about the use of URLs at Bath which fed
into the University's current URL policy. The paper is at:
http://homes.ukoln.ac.uk/~lisap/bath-urls/
(Note that this paper does not reflect the finished URL policy completely.
Unfortunately I can't give you a URL for the policy because it is
restricted to the campus only for some reason :-( ).
Andy.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: List for the UK HE community to discuss all aspects of managing an
> institut [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jump Ruth
> Sent: 20 September 2001 09:58
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: How do users find pages?
>
>
> I'm about to be drawn into a bicker with one of our academic departments
> on the subject of URLs and whether or not users can find them. I have
> technical and political reasons for not wanting to give him the URL he's
> asking for, but he's of the opinion that no-one will find his site, at
> it's current address.
>
> My gut feeling is that anyone looking for his pages, nowadays, without
> knowing where they are, would use a search engine, either our own, or an
> external one. In which case, the address of his pages doesn't matter
> very much. Does anyone have any evidence to support/discount my feeling
> on this? Or am I making assumptions based my own habits, which are not
> representative?
>
>
> Ruth
>
>
>
>
> Ruth A Jump
> CWIS Team
> Computing and Information Services
> Liverpool John Moores University
>
>
>
>
>
>
Andy
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