URLs: Mean time of survival? -Reply

[KAREN SCHNEIDER]

Equally wild conjecture, but if I were to start hypthesizin' before
assessin', I'd guess that:

* URLs with tildes change or expire significantly more frequently
than URLs without tildes

* .gov sites change least frequently of all (though having written
that, it's because I *hope* that's the case)

* top-level URLs are far more stable than any subdirectory 

* "real" servers are more stable than virtual servers

But that overall Internet sites are increasingly stable, and that
moved resources increasingly refer the seeker to the correct
resource.

People forget that other info resources are also mutable.  We buy
books, we weed books, they are lost, they are stolen, we change
where we put them.  The fact is, information is hard work.

Karen "rolling up her sleeves as she writes" Schneider
(and ain't that a trick, anyway!)

Karen G. Schneider/schneider.karen at epamail.epa.gov
Contractor, GCI/Director, US EPA Region 2 Library
http://www.epa.gov/Region2/library/