Thus far, I’ve been a bit of a silent partner. I haven’t
quite known how to contribute to this blog. I’m a librarian, like Si, but I’m
not an artist. She’s good at making things look nice as well as making things that look nice. I’m good at making
things make sense. How does one convey that in a blog? I think I’ll simply
start by complaining about things that don’t make sense. It seems the internet
is a popular place for people’s rants, so I don’t feel out of place doing this.
I’ll begin with top-level domains.
To ensure that we’re all on the same page, top-level domains are the .com, for example, portion of a URL. The official list of them is maintained by the IANA, which is a .org if you were wondering. I’m not certain when it began or why IANA was okay with it, if they are indeed involved in such decisions, but I really dislike this new trend in using just any ol’ top-level in order to make your URL look cuter. I’m referring to sites like http://instagr.am (which has since changed its URL) and http://cater2.me/, a new site I’ve seen advertised on the subway. In my humble librarian opinion, the top-level domain is a piece of information that is supposed to convey meaning. I know that a .gov is a site for a US governmental agency, and years ago I learned that other countries had specific codes. For instance, http://www.amazon.ca/ is the Canadian Amazon site, and http://www.italia.it/en/ is the official tourism site for Italy, with this specific URL signifying that this is the English language version of the page. Instagram isn’t based in Armenia, nor is Cater2.me based in Montenegro, yet they registered domain names with those country codes in order to have a URL that spells something out. Now, I understand wanting to have a catchy name and wanting one’s ads to have a certain visual appeal, but I do not appreciate straying from a structure that is meant to convey useful information. I realize being bothered by such a thing is the librarian in me. However, I am also aware of problems that have arisen when American companies decide to register their domain name with foreign countries in order to get that better looking URL. Take http://bit.ly/ for example. Bitly changed their domain in 2011 because of difficulties with the Libyan government who controls .ly domain names. Maybe countries with oppressive governments or a history of instability aren’t really the best choice.
To ensure that we’re all on the same page, top-level domains are the .com, for example, portion of a URL. The official list of them is maintained by the IANA, which is a .org if you were wondering. I’m not certain when it began or why IANA was okay with it, if they are indeed involved in such decisions, but I really dislike this new trend in using just any ol’ top-level in order to make your URL look cuter. I’m referring to sites like http://instagr.am (which has since changed its URL) and http://cater2.me/, a new site I’ve seen advertised on the subway. In my humble librarian opinion, the top-level domain is a piece of information that is supposed to convey meaning. I know that a .gov is a site for a US governmental agency, and years ago I learned that other countries had specific codes. For instance, http://www.amazon.ca/ is the Canadian Amazon site, and http://www.italia.it/en/ is the official tourism site for Italy, with this specific URL signifying that this is the English language version of the page. Instagram isn’t based in Armenia, nor is Cater2.me based in Montenegro, yet they registered domain names with those country codes in order to have a URL that spells something out. Now, I understand wanting to have a catchy name and wanting one’s ads to have a certain visual appeal, but I do not appreciate straying from a structure that is meant to convey useful information. I realize being bothered by such a thing is the librarian in me. However, I am also aware of problems that have arisen when American companies decide to register their domain name with foreign countries in order to get that better looking URL. Take http://bit.ly/ for example. Bitly changed their domain in 2011 because of difficulties with the Libyan government who controls .ly domain names. Maybe countries with oppressive governments or a history of instability aren’t really the best choice.
