Dan Kaminsky

Wed Aug 5 22:37:27 UTC 2009

On Aug 5, 2009, at 6:26 PM, Ben Scott wrote:

> On Wed, Aug 5, 2009 at 12:49 PM, Jorge Amodio <jmamodio at gmail.com>  
> wrote:
>> At some time in the future and when a new paradigm for the user  
>> interface is
>> conceived, we may not longer have the end user “typing” a URL, the  
>> DNS or
>> something similar will still be in the background providing name to  
>> address
>> mapping but there will be no more monetary value associated with it  
>> or that
>> value will be transferred to something else.
>
>  We're already there.  It's called "Google".
>
>  In the the vast majority of cases I have seen, people don't type
> domain names, they search the web.  When they do type a domain name,
> they usually type it into the Google search box.

Partially true for web access, very rarely true for email. I type in  
email domains much more often than I do web domains. And now email  
addresses are becoming URIs for log ins, SIP calling, video  
conferencing, etc.

It's also interesting how in some ways twitter and its relatives have  
been sending
URLs backwards. If you type in

http://www.americafree.tv

you may have some idea what you are getting, but if you type in

http://bit.ly/w5aM4

you have none. (These two URLs go, or at least they should go, to the  
same place.
Who knows if that will be true in a year, or 5, or 10.)

Here is a place IMO where a better UI and URI philosophy would really  
help.

Regards
Marshall

>
>
>  (Alternatively, they type everything into the browser's "address
> bar", which is really a
> "search-the-web bar" in most browsers.)
>
>  (Replace "Google" with search engine of your choice.)
>
> -- Ben
>
>