soeren says » Blog Archive » Simplicity, as expressed in URLs

Home

Simplicity, as expressed in URLs

July 3rd, 2008

The browser download URLs, from 37signals’s announcement “Phasing out support for IE 6″:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/ie/getitnow.mspx?wt_svl=10005WDH_OS_Other1&mg_id=10005WDHb1
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/
http://www.apple.com/safari/download/

As Denis says, you can pretty much type apple.com/<productname> and expect it to either work or at least redirect. Firefox’s URL isn’t too bad; Microsoft’s could use a lot of work. In fact, anything past the /ie/ is or should be completely redundant.

This isn’t just a minor nitpick. For one, it really shows which company’s culture emphasizes simplicity more. And, you can be sure which of the three is least likely to change after a re-design…

Tagged Apple, Firefox, IE, Microsoft, Mozilla, Safari, simplicity, URLs
Posted in Chuckellania

Others' Thoughts

# Fafnir
Comment on July 3rd, 2008 at 8:01 pm

Hm, why didn’t link 37 signal just to this address?

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/ie

# myst-bert
Comment on July 3rd, 2008 at 11:18 pm

It would seem that they (being 37signals) choose a link that is unnecessarily complicated, as Fafnir pointed out…

Also, the ending paragraph seems to say that a change after a redesign is a bad thing from a simplicity point of view…wouldn’t a change (if the displayed address had indeed been the only one usable) be a /good/ thing?

# chucker
Comment on July 3rd, 2008 at 11:36 pm

Fafnir’s URL redirects to another, longer URL. In fact, once you have chosen an operating system, you get an even longer one, such as: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=9AE91EBE-3385-447C-8A30-081805B2F90B&displaylang=en

As for changes: changing a URL is only a good thing if there are working redirects from the old one, which more often than not is not the case.

# myst-bert
Comment on July 4th, 2008 at 3:44 am

I’m afraid I don’t understand why it matters how long the url gets /after/ you’re already on the site…you don’t need to type that in to get to the download (all you need is the short version), so why is it important?

Also, FWIW, when I click to download Firefox I am redirected to http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/products/download.html?product=firefox-3.0&os=win&lang=en-US, which is rather unwieldy itself. Both downloads are, however, easily accessible from the short-url pages (though MS routes you through the longer one you specified, you never need to know more than the short one), which to me is all that is desired.

Your Own Thoughts

I'd love to hear your input. Just try to stick to a few rules:

Please, think before you post. It's not a chatroom — you have plenty of time to avoid gratuitous abbreviations (no "u" for "you", please) and to proofread. Everyone benefits from comments which have had an extra minute of thinking.
Though I virtually never delete a comment, I do reserve the right to do so for ones I deem irrelevant, unthoughtful, as trolling or as flaming, or otherwise hostile.
Unfortunately, you cannot currently edit. When necessary, do feel free to double-post; I will merge your posts together, and correct mistakes for you if you so wish.
Likewise, you cannot delete. You can, however, ask me to do it by contacting me. Please only do so if truly necessary.
I reserve the right not to approve comments with bogus names or e-mail addresses, but will typically leave them published as well.

Before you comment for the first time (or, after you have deleted cookies), you will have to answer a little challenge to prove that you are not a spammer.

Comments are written in Markdown.