Is "www" desirable in web site URL?

[Peter Murray]

On Thu, 12 Sep 1996, John Kupersmith wrote:
> I'm helping construct the URL for a new web site.
> It will either be:
>      http://www.co.washoe.nv.us
> or:
>      http://co.washoe.nv.us

Several people already responded that having the "www." on the front is a
"good thing" because it is somewhat expected.  Others have commented that it
is a good idea to make your "www.name.org" address an "alias" for another
machine, which will let you move your web server around if you need too; this
is also a good idea.

I just want to add one comment about the format of your URL.  By the
standard, there should be a trailing slash at the end of your URL.  Such as:

  http://www.co.washoe.nv.us/

or

  http://co.washoe.nv.us/

This is a comment from the purist (defined in Webster's Collegiate Dictionary
as "one who adheres strictly and often excessively to a tradition", except
replace "tradition" with "standard") point of view, but it is the "correct" 
way to format a URL for the top level of a site.  Fortunately, (or
unfortunately from a purist's point of view) we have modern browsers which
correct for this oversight. 


Peter
--
Peter Murray, Library Systems Manager                      pem at po.cwru.edu
Library Information Technologies         http://www.cwru.edu/home/pem.html
Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio            W:216-368-8989