Ruth,
I habitually use URLs and lots of my colleagues do also. Search engines are not necessariy up to date, and from a usability perspective, why spend time and effort navigating through somebody else's interface when you can type in the URL directly? Being reliant on search engines is rather like being reliant on the village telephone operator back in the 20s and 30s. No thanks, I much prefer dialling direct.
A couple of years old, but worth a look, are Jakob Nielsen's comments on the use of URLs as navigation aids:
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990321.html
If you choose not to allocate somebody the URL they want or web-space where they want it, why not give them a compromise URL that is re-directed to their actual web-space?
Sean Wilcock
-----Original Message-----
From: Brian Kelly
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: 20/09/01 12:48
Subject: Re: How do users find pages?
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.
Brian
---------------------------------------
Brian Kelly
UK Web Focus
UKOLN
University of Bath
BATH
BA2 7AY
Email: [log in to unmask]
Web: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/ <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/>
Phone: 01225 323943
-----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
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