I'm not saying they don't understand that the domain name specifies a site, and the entire thing identifies a unique page on that site (usually), I'm saying how

I'm not saying they don't understand that the domain name specifies a site, and the entire thing identifies a unique page on that site (usually), I'm saying how the latter works is virtually magic to them. They don't parse the contents or do anything with the pieces, it may as well be random letters and numbers after the tld. My assertion is that the vast majority of people do two things with the address bar: 1. Manually type in a web site address, but nothing past the top level domain 2. Copy or paste the entire thing I think what you're asserting is that people look at them, understand them, and then apply that knowledge somehow. I disagree with at least the last part, and probably the first two to a lesser degree. What percent of laypeople do you think have manually altered a URL like your eBay example? I've done the same thing with Amazon product links myself, but I don't know anybody else who has. I just don't think it's very common at all.