4 ms·

Actually, the one main benefit is that they can be parsed as URLs, both visually and by things like email programs. Compare: "For the latest blog post, just h

Actually, the one main benefit is that they can be parsed as URLs, both visually and by things like email programs. Compare: "For the latest blog post, just head to elliottkember." "For the latest blog post, just head to http://elliottkember.com http://elliottkember.com The first one makes no sense, while the second is obviously talking about a web URL. I'm sure there are other ways to make this work, but this author's post feels like a solution in search of a problem. At the very least, it's hardly "madness".

zandorg 18y ago
People who advertise their company (for example, on the side of one of their trucks) sometimes start it with a www. which would fail one of those OS-detected http:// http:// tests which only look for http:// http:// and not www.
- skwiddor 18y ago
  My OS isn't very good at reading the side of trucks
randomwalker 18y ago
This is even more of an issue in conversation. Although the http can be omitted, the .com is often the only clue that the speaker is referring to a web address.
aneesh 18y ago
I remember a psychology study that showed people recognize www.yahoo.com as a url more quickly than yahoo.com -- with the latter, you don't see the ".com" until you get to the end of the phrase, and that's when you realize it's a url. I can only imagine that getting rid of the .com would make things even worse.
- marcus 18y ago
  That is because of psychological mechanism called Priming, basically an earlier input can affect your perception of a later input. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priming_(psychology) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priming_(psychology)
jackchristopher 18y ago
When I give my email I omit the .com. But I think this works with popular hosts only, like gmail or yahoo. I say "myname at yahoo" and people know to fill the rest. If I can keep something implicit I will.

zandorg 18y ago

People who advertise their company (for example, on the side of one of their trucks) sometimes start it with a www. which would fail one of those OS-detected http:// http:// tests which only look for http:// http:// and not www.

skwiddor 18y ago
My OS isn't very good at reading the side of trucks

randomwalker 18y ago

This is even more of an issue in conversation. Although the http can be omitted, the .com is often the only clue that the speaker is referring to a web address.

aneesh 18y ago

I remember a psychology study that showed people recognize www.yahoo.com as a url more quickly than yahoo.com -- with the latter, you don't see the ".com" until you get to the end of the phrase, and that's when you realize it's a url. I can only imagine that getting rid of the .com would make things even worse.

marcus 18y ago
That is because of psychological mechanism called Priming, basically an earlier input can affect your perception of a later input. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priming_(psychology) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priming_(psychology)

jackchristopher 18y ago

When I give my email I omit the .com. But I think this works with popular hosts only, like gmail or yahoo. I say "myname at yahoo" and people know to fill the rest. If I can keep something implicit I will.