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Nobody is asking people to understand the HTTP protocol. This is understanding how information is addressed in the 21st century. The more apt comparison might

Nobody is asking people to understand the HTTP protocol. This is understanding how information is addressed in the 21st century. The more apt comparison might be physical mail addresses. People should understand (and it is taught in schools!) the basic format and the structure of it. We don't ask them to understand (in the states) the layout of zip codes, but we do expect them to understand that the first line refers to street address. Similarly, we can do the same education for information today. We can explain the design behind the structure, the beauty and simplicity in URL design. (not always, I get that) Or, we can just continue on the path we're headed and tell users: "just type this into the search bar (Google), and a website comes back, along with some ads (probably)".

edanm 13y ago
While I would love for the simple idea of the URL scheme to be something everyone understands, I highly doubt it's every going to happen. I'm sad about this, but I live in the real world with real people, and I've seen the kind of stuff they do and don't learn, whether by ability or by inclination.
- altcognito 13y ago
  What's sad is that we've had URL schemes for 20 years and they aren't taught in school. Also sad is many people think we teaching algebra and calculus secondary education is a given but basic concepts like domain names in a URL are "too complicated" for the real world.
  - edanm 13y ago
    I get where you're coming from, and I'm not sure whether I agree or not. Personally, I think modern education is wrong-headed time most of the time, but I'm not sure I'd switch to teaching URL schemes if I was overlord of the universe. I'd much more likely insist on teaching the basics of economics, finance, logic, rationality, human psychology, etc. URLs would still be far down my list.
    - dlisboa 13y ago
      Basic URLs take literally a single day to teach. The people you're teaching them to already have more contact to them than almost anyone else. Schools already have computer classes (or should have anyway). Then you want to teach them basic finance so they can't throw away their money, except on a phishing attack? We should make users more powerful, not take away everything that can hurt them like hiding pointy triangles from kids.
- jiggy2011 13y ago
  You might not be giving people enough credit, people without CS degrees have been using URLs in emails and forum posts to link to information for years.
baddox 13y ago
If there was some level of abstraction/automation to allow addressing physical mail without knowing street numbers, zip codes, etc., I would be fine with that. I imagine there is actually a lot of problems with mail delivery because of the messiness of addresses. I've encountered it a few times in the USA (some carriers want "Route P" but some want "Highway P," and some want "Suite 404" but some want "4th Floor"), and I bet it can get even messier, especially in poorer countries.

edanm 13y ago

While I would love for the simple idea of the URL scheme to be something everyone understands, I highly doubt it's every going to happen. I'm sad about this, but I live in the real world with real people, and I've seen the kind of stuff they do and don't learn, whether by ability or by inclination.

altcognito 13y ago
What's sad is that we've had URL schemes for 20 years and they aren't taught in school. Also sad is many people think we teaching algebra and calculus secondary education is a given but basic concepts like domain names in a URL are "too complicated" for the real world.
- edanm 13y ago
  I get where you're coming from, and I'm not sure whether I agree or not. Personally, I think modern education is wrong-headed time most of the time, but I'm not sure I'd switch to teaching URL schemes if I was overlord of the universe. I'd much more likely insist on teaching the basics of economics, finance, logic, rationality, human psychology, etc. URLs would still be far down my list.
  - dlisboa 13y ago
    Basic URLs take literally a single day to teach. The people you're teaching them to already have more contact to them than almost anyone else. Schools already have computer classes (or should have anyway). Then you want to teach them basic finance so they can't throw away their money, except on a phishing attack? We should make users more powerful, not take away everything that can hurt them like hiding pointy triangles from kids.
jiggy2011 13y ago
You might not be giving people enough credit, people without CS degrees have been using URLs in emails and forum posts to link to information for years.

baddox 13y ago

If there was some level of abstraction/automation to allow addressing physical mail without knowing street numbers, zip codes, etc., I would be fine with that. I imagine there is actually a lot of problems with mail delivery because of the messiness of addresses. I've encountered it a few times in the USA (some carriers want "Route P" but some want "Highway P," and some want "Suite 404" but some want "4th Floor"), and I bet it can get even messier, especially in poorer countries.