Comments on: Extended URLS

By: Vilken adress är bäst reklam? » Webbrådgivare Fredrik Wackå

Vilken adress är bäst reklam? » Webbrådgivare Fredrik Wackå — Thu, 30 Mar 2006 16:53:52 +0000

[...] En intressant diskussion hos Jared Spool: Kommer någon ihåg webbadresser som http://www.foretag.se/produkt från en tv- eller tidningsannons? Eller är det bara http://www.foretag.se som, i bästa fall fastnar? [...]

By: Patrick Moss

Patrick Moss — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 21:09:19 +0000

http://ipod.apple.com works as well.

Kudos to Apple. I may be in the minority, but I guess URLs frequently and it’s nice to have all these URLs available.

By: Christian Watson

Christian Watson — Mon, 03 Oct 2005 20:35:23 +0000

I agree with the comments above that extended or “guessable” URLs are a worthwhile addition to a web site. I use both the Apple and Microsoft sites and find it very helpful to be able to guess a URL and get to where I want to go.

Extended URLs are also useful for print purposes – for example, in a brochure or journal article where someone is going to have to type out the URL to get to the page. We use them for our brochures and flyers – the only trouble is keeping track of them all!

By: Jared Spool

Jared Spool — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 20:48:10 +0000

Ketan,

When Apple secured http://www.ipod.com, that’s exactly what they were doing.

From a brand perspective, it will probably help to strengthen the sub-brand mark (in this case, “iPod”) but won’t help to connect it to it’s parent (“Apple”).

By: Ketan Vakil

Ketan Vakil — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 19:42:24 +0000

Alternatively, what are your thoughts on using a custom URL in an ad – so people do not chop off the extended URL portion?

This method would help for tracking. I also see the negative side to doing this – that the brand name may not appear by itself in the domain name. This may be damaging for lesser known brands…?

By: Ferry den Dopper

Ferry den Dopper — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 08:13:30 +0000

I’m sure some people do and many people don’t remember these url’s, but they make excellent guessable urls, like http://www.apple.com/quicktime or http://www.microsoft.com/office (ofcourse this works better with strong brands). Besides, extended url’s are more recognizable than, say, page ID’s and search engines seem to attach some value to them.

By: Scott Sipiora

Scott Sipiora — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 21:40:29 +0000

These URL’s are used for two purposes. First, they’re used to get the user closer to the content they’re actually interested in. Second, they’re used for campaign tracking purposes. In this second example a company may put out a series of URL’s which are used to determine which ad (TV, Radio, Direct Mail, e-mail) is delivering which response. By looking at the date/time of visits, they can easily correlate which ads were likely to have caused the traffic on the Web site.

By: Joe Clark

Joe Clark — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 20:34:38 +0000

I am relieved to read that UIE resisted the temptation to decry “extended” URLs because some maroon with an AOL account somewhere might not understand them. We have to assume that Web sophistication *increases* and does not stay stagnant.

Also, your comment preview is unusably slow.

By: DeWayne Purdy

DeWayne Purdy — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 17:58:14 +0000

Our approach has been to direct them to the university home page, and make sure there’s a clear path from there. We’re doing that this fall with homecoming and family weekend links, it allows us to promote them via radio using uni.edu instead of a longer url. The other benefit to sending them to the home page rather than the specific page is they may be exposed to other information on the home page they’re interested in. Of course, someone could make the argument that we’re driving them through unnecessary links by not giving the full url, but this system works for us. I also agree with Jared, if you use a longer url, use multiple channels to get them to their destination.