please empty your brain below
Anyone got any other examples of very long, very meaningless URLs?

[apologies, today's comments may break your browser]

Housekeeping notice: If you want Haloscan to display your very-long URL unabbreviated, chop the "http://" off the front.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 04.08.08 - 8:12 a.m. | #

Great posts!
I found this blog today!
I will read frequently.

Alex

alex | 04.08.08 - 9:52 a.m. | #

On the subject of urls, it's not just the long ones that can cause problems. Some people don't think before creating a url and a rude word appears in it and therefore cannot be linked to by work places with thick firewalls (I think that's what controls what you're looking at - correct me if I'm wrong - high possibility).

There was, for example, Scunthorpe's city Council which didn't receive any emails for a week until they realised what the problem was ....

zed | Homepage | 04.08.08 - 10:17 a.m. | #

And I thought I was the only one who cared about this!

The amazon URL isn't too bad and at least makes some kind of sense: "Abba-Gold" is obvious, "dp" is one of their database engines, "B0001XLXYI" is their stock code ('ASIN') for the item and the rest of the URL can safely be omitted - go ahead, try it.

A nony mouse | 04.08.08 - 10:27 a.m. | #

*applauds*

The Girl | Homepage | 04.08.08 - 10:43 a.m. | #

Personally I'm a fan of GiganticURL.com, which creates such monstrosities as: www.giganticurl.com/url/
aHR0cDovL2RpYW1vbmRnZWV6ZXIuYmxvZ3Nwb3QuY29tLw==aH
R0cDovL2RpYW1vbmRnZWV6ZXIuYmxvZ3Nwb3QuY29tL2FIUjBj
RG92TDJScFlXMXZibVJuWldWNlpYSXVZbXh2WjNOd2IzUXVZMj
l0THc9PQ==aHR0cDovL2RpYW1vbmRnZWV6ZXIuYmxvZ3Nwb3Qu
Y29tL2FIUjBjRG92TDJScFlXMXZibVJuWldWNlpYSXVZbXh2Wj
NOd2IzUXVZMjl0THc9PWFIUjBjRG92TDJScFlXMXZibVJuWldW
NlpYSXVZbXh2WjNOd2IzUXVZMjl0TDJGSVVqQmpSRzkyVERKU2
NGbFhNWFppYlZKdVdsZFdObHBZU1hWWmJYaDJXak5PZDJJelVY
VlpNamwwVEhjOVBRPT0=aHR0cDovL2RpYW1vbmRnZWV6ZXIuYm
xvZ3Nwb3QuY29tL2FIUjBjRG92TDJScFlXMXZibVJuWldWNlpY
SXVZbXh2WjNOd2IzUXVZMjl0THc9PWFIUjBjRG92TDJScFlXMX
ZibVJuWldWNlpYSXVZbXh2WjNOd2IzUXVZMjl0TDJGSVVqQmpS
RzkyVERKU2NGbFhNWFppYlZKdVdsZFdObHBZU1hWWmJYaDJXak
5PZDJJelVYVlpNamwwVEhjOVBRPT1hSFIwY0RvdkwyUnBZVzF2
Ym1SblpXVjZaWEl1WW14dlozTndiM1F1WTI5dEwyRklVakJqUk
c5MlRESlNjRmxYTVhaaWJWSnVXbGRXTmxwWVNYVlpiWGgyV2pO
T2QySXpVWFZaTWpsMFRIYzlQV0ZJVWpCalJHOTJUREpTY0ZsWE
1YWmliVkp1V2xkV05scFlTWFZaYlhoMldqTk9kMkl6VVhWWk1q
bDBUREpHU1ZWcVFtcFNSemt5VkVSS1UyTkdiRmhOV0ZwcFlsWk
tkVmRzWkZkT2JIQlpVMWhXV21KWWFESlhhazVQWkRKSmVsVllW
bHBOYW13d1ZFaGpPVkJSUFQwPQ==aHR0cDovL2RpYW1vbmRnZW
V6ZXIuYmxvZ3Nwb3QuY29tL2FIUjBjRG92TDJScFlXMXZibVJu
WldWNlpYSXVZbXh2WjNOd2IzUXVZMjl0THc9PWFIUjBjRG92TD
JScFlXMXZibVJuWldWNlpYSXVZbXh2WjNOd2IzUXVZMjl0TDJG
SVVqQmpSRzkyVERKU2NGbFhNWFppYlZKdVdsZFdObHBZU1hWWm
JYaDJXak5PZDJJelVYVlpNamwwVEhjOVBRPT1hSFIwY0Rvdkwy
UnBZVzF2Ym1SblpXVjZaWEl1WW14dlozTndiM1F1WTI5dEwyRk
lVakJqUkc5MlRESlNjRmxYTVhaaWJWSnVXbGRXTmxwWVNYVlpi
WGgyV2pOT2QySXpVWFZaTWpsMFRIYzlQV0ZJVWpCalJHOTJURE
pTY0ZsWE1YWmliVkp1V2xkV05scFlTWFZaYlhoMldqTk9kMkl6
VVhWWk1qbDBUREpHU1ZWcVFtcFNSemt5VkVSS1UyTkdiRmhOV0
ZwcFlsWktkVmRzWkZkT2JIQlpVMWhXV21KWWFESlhhazVQWkRK
SmVsVllWbHBOYW13d1ZFaGpPVkJSUFQwPWFIUjBjRG92TDJScF
lXMXZibVJuWldWNlpYSXVZbXh2WjNOd2IzUXVZMjl0TDJGSVVq
QmpSRzkyVERKU2NGbFhNWFppYlZKdVdsZFdObHBZU1hWWmJYaD
JXak5PZDJJelVYVlpNamwwVEhjOVBXRklVakJqUkc5MlRESlNj
RmxYTVhaaWJWSnVXbGRXTmxwWVNYVlpiWGgyV2pOT2QySXpVWF
ZaTWpsMFRESkdTVlZxUW1wU1J6a3lWRVJLVTJOR2JGaE5XRnBw
WWxaS2RWZHNaRmRPYkhCWlUxaFdXbUpZYURKWGFrNVBaREpKZW
xWWVZscE5hbXd3VkVoak9WQlJQVDFoU0ZJd1kwUnZka3d5VW5C
WlZ6RjJZbTFTYmxwW

Martin | 04.08.08 - 10:59 a.m. | #

(which does work if you click it: http://www.giganticurl.com/url/
a...Z6RjJZbTFTYmxwW )

Martin | 04.08.08 - 11:02 a.m. | #

I have noticed the same thing to an increasing extent recently. There are a lot of sloppy website technicians out there.

Z | Homepage | 04.08.08 - 11:06 a.m. | #

If you think you qualify as an 'educator, publisher or information professional' you could also use the DigBig free service. Guidelines here: http://www.digbig.com/guide.html

Bina | 04.08.08 - 12:04 p.m. | #

The problem is when using a CMS system is that the URLs are automatically generated and hence make no sense to humans. Website admins can use software to rewrite them into something more human which should help SEO with google as well.

Peter Jones | Homepage | 04.08.08 - 12:49 p.m. | #

The fun thing about Amazon URLs is that you can put whatever you like as the second component. The only thing it actually needs is the /dp/ and the unique identifier (B0001XLXYI in this case).

Try it:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0001XLXYI/
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Anything.../dp/B0001XLXYI/

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete.../dp/B0001XLXYI/


The main reason I don't like enormous URLs like the St Paul's one is that I don't trust them not to change. They're obviously generated by some CMS, and if the CMS changes then the URLs probably will too, breaking everyone's links (yes, I've seen this happen multiple times — most recent offenders were the Cambridge Evening News, who also decided to ignore all emails on the matter).

Must admit I find your own URLs a little annoying — having to link to an entire 90kB page (and then hope that people won't be confused by their browsers jumping down the page) in order to link to a single article — but I assume if there was a way round this without changing software you'd have implemented it, so this is not a complaint!

Kake | Homepage | 04.08.08 - 1:23 p.m. | #

That rhinocub is classic early personal home page!

Another Andrew | 04.08.08 - 2:24 p.m. | #

Kake's got you there - the way to deeplink to one of DG's postings is to right-click on the posting time at the bottom: and guess what, it gives you a database-generated ID number - which is where we came in.

The trouble is that, to keep large sites at all manageable, from the point of view of both user and provider, you need a CMS which needs to keep track of all the separate elements within a page. It just costs too much and risks too much inconsistency if you try and manage it all by individuals coding up HTML.

Autolycus | Homepage | 04.08.08 - 5:38 p.m. | #

http://www.addedbytes.com/apache...-for-beginners/


URL Rewriting for Beginners

Anonymous | 04.08.08 - 8:03 p.m. | #

The problem is not using a content management system per se (or CMS for those who've just read the above comments and thought what is this gobbledegook), but using a rubbish CMS. (Like lotus notes, for example, as the lady from Brent acknowledges. The thelang=001 one is grouptree. Yes, I do know an unhealthy amount about CMS)

ian | Homepage | 04.08.08 - 10:09 p.m. | #

"URL cruft" is one term I found for such nonsensical urls, a by-product of cms's, stupidity and ignorance.

Lotes Notes is just some other thing.

All urls can be rewritten, that the owners of these sites can't be bothered to learn how to use url rewriting is lamentable at least and my eyes almost criminal at worst.

Fancy reading one of those out on the phone to somebody, maybe someone whose mother tongue is not english?

Not to mention loss of search engine interest, and as stated, they are impossible to reproduce in print.

You don't need to 'code everything up in html' to have readable, meaningful urls, but you do need to want to find out how to do it - in short you need to be a professional and you need to care. Not a definition of the folks working at those places, clearly.

PaulG | Homepage | 04.08.08 - 11:00 p.m. | #

I've just clicked on Martin's gigantic URL. Bloody brilliant.

Definately a step up from being Rickrolled, Geez-umped perhaps?

Three-Legged-Cat | Homepage | 04.08.08 - 11:19 p.m. | #

Ooo I get to be a pedant! Lotus Notes is just the e-mail client, Domino is the server that delivers the pages. While I know nothing about why, I am familiar with oodles of Domino based websites that don't seem to suffer in a similar manner, and there are clearly as more MS based sites of the same ilk, so it seems to be down to the programmer.

One of my favourite timewasting activities when I'm on interesting conference calls is to key in random tinyurl's to see where they take me (with Java switched off, boys and girls!!). In the early days, they were all sequential. After some point they started leaving random gaps.

Ham | Homepage | 04.08.08 - 11:25 p.m. | #

Lotus Notes makes anything bad.

Kirk | 04.08.08 - 11:28 p.m. | #

Ahh yes. And the "favicon" on the Brent website is still the default Domino one. Clearly a conscientious programmer.

Ham | Homepage | 04.08.08 - 11:29 p.m. | #

Bureaucracies seem to love long addresses. Here are some REAL examples.

Cheers, Walker

http://www.justice.vic.gov.au/
wp...sessment+Prison

http://www.dpc.vic.gov.au/domino...c4!
OpenDocument

Walker | Homepage | 05.08.08 - 8:08 a.m. | #

You have all completely lost me, havent a clue what you are all talking about. Spent most of yesterday trying to set up a wireless connection to my home P.C. and lost the plot after about 5 hours, keeled over the desk begging for some gin. P.S. B.T Broadband support were very helpful, and it was a free number.

Surrey Girl | 05.08.08 - 11:27 a.m. | #

I'm not a big fan of long URLs either. They're especially inconvienent when I want to post links in e-mails (or, of course, blogpost comments). It's certainly much easier to link to http://tinyurl.com/58uo2l than http://www.tesco.com/books/
produ...d+with+a+Fridge (hence the popularity of services such as TinyURL).

Hopefully, when we move on from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0, such enormous URLs will become a thing of the past. We can but hope...

Andrewh | 05.08.08 - 5:20 p.m. | #

I'm a fan of http://is.gd

Andrew Denny | Homepage | 05.08.08 - 5:40 p.m. | #

Long urls are generally generated by database driven sites and CMS tools... the curse of content driven sites.

RobC | Homepage | 05.08.08 - 9:58 p.m. | #

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