With mod-rewrite the first part of the URI component can get passed as a a parameter to whatever comes next. The alternative is to split the hostname parameter.

With mod-rewrite the first part of the URI component can get passed as a a parameter to whatever comes next. The alternative is to split the hostname parameter. That doesn't sound like a big deal but here's a convoluted example. http://john.doe.example.com/ http://john.doe.example.com/ http://john.doe.example.net/ http://john.doe.example.net/ http://example.net/john.doe/ http://example.net/john.doe/ Here in the UK we also have the .co.uk as a possibility too.