Why http:// and not http://www.?

[Tigratrus]

Wait, short is sexy now?

TMI man... T.M.I.

 

[Enigma]

The question is:
Is there any real advantages using (http://domain.tld) over (http://www.domain.tld)?

Yes, there can be, as already mentioned:

There are a few valid reasons for keeping www above and beyond that of pure preference. Two that spring to mind:

• Cookie control. Cookies set on non-www are accessible on every sub-domain you might have later.
• Ability to CNAME www (for example to a CDN). This way you can still keep other important records on the domain (SOA and NS in particular), which you couldn't do if you CNAME'd the domain.

 

[Ahmed]

Any other advantages?

 

[Mopquill]

I think it depends on the specific URL you're using. If it's something like 3.ly, that looks a lot better than www.3.ly. At the same time, www.google.com looks more balanced than google.com alone does. Really, for the sake of consistence, both should go to the same place, so it's really just a matter of if you rewrite them, and if so, which rewrites to which. In general, I usually prefer the www.

 

[Enigma]

Any other advantages?

Not really.

 

[Jim McClain]

I'm just not gettin' all this back an' forth over something this trivial. It must just be a misunderstanding. You can have the actual URL any way you want it, depending on your needs and you can "write" the domain address any way you want it, depending on your personal desires. For instance, I have 2 websites, one uses www. in the URL structure, the other does not. I put a little code in a domain root file that makes sure no matter what domain address you type in the browser address bar, you'll get my sites the way I have structured the URL. Type "afloorpro.com" or "www.afloorpro.com" and you will always get http://afloorpro.com. Type "TheFloorPro.com" or "http://thefloorpro.com" and you will always get http://www.thefloorpro.com.

It makes not one bit of difference what you think looks better because you can continue to use what looks better to you forever. All you have to do is type it that way. If you set your server and redirects up right, you don't have to worry if your visitors or people looking at your website address will type it wrong or post it wrong on some other site.

I was hired to do web work on another forum and that site had so many ways to get to their website, every one of them using a different URL, it made me dizzy. The site could be accessed by domain2.domain1.net, domain1.net/domain2/, domain2.com and www.domain2.com. I was surprised he hadn't had some serious issues with duplicate content. Of course, when I fixed it, there were a number of complaints from his members that they couldn't stay logged in - their cookies were causing the problem. Clearing the cookies of their browsers solved the problem.

Pick one way to display your website address, or show it differently whenever you feel like it. If you stick to one URL with proper redirects, then it won't matter. It will always get you what you really want: visitors to the right pages of your site.

Why http:// and not http://www.? Only one really good answer: personal preference. It doesn't need to be any more or less than that here.

R'gards,

Jim

 

[welshstew]

I don't see why this thread is continuing - this is a hosting issue, not a forum / software one.

 

[Walter]

Many forget the user in their thoughts.

Many normal users are used to the www part and if you advertise your site, it's a lot easier for the user to recognize the URL with www.site.com than site.com or http://site.com

 

[welshstew]

Many forget the user in their thoughts.

Many normal users are used to the www part and if you advertise your site, it's a lot easier for the user to recognize the URL with www.site.com than site.com or http://site.com

I disagree, it looks better from a marketing/branding point of view (depending on the site) but from a user experience point of view, it is better to have the non-www version - less to type = quicker

 

[Cezz]

If you set your cookie domain to example.com, then you would need a different domain name for your CDN to avoid sending cookies with all requests for static content.

Good point... I haven't actually setup a CDN on that particular site yet though but the subdomains for each user is a bigger feature ATM...

 

[vB Style]

Personally I prefer with www.
But you have to choose one. Because Google indexes the "www." version and the non-"www." version. Which causes SEO problems, especially duplicate content.

 

[Safin]

Personally I prefer with www.
But you have to choose one. Because Google indexes the "www." version and the non-"www." version. Which causes SEO problems, especially duplicate content.

Actually google webmaster tools allow verified site owners to set the preference about which version to show in search pages. But they do encourage sticking to one and redirecting the other.

 

[Peggy]

Wait, short is sexy now?

This is actually a good thing, since I'm pretty short.

Oh wait, we're talking about urls. My bad..........

 

[Peggy]

I don't see why this thread is continuing - this is a hosting issue, not a forum / software one.

Rather than close the thread, I've moved it to the Off Topic forum.

 

[Peggy]

Wait, short is sexy now?

apparently so

 

[KURTZ]

LOL, less is more!

 

[CBI Web]

Is this the 2010 version of Mac vs Windows?

 

[Peggy]

LOL, less is more!

Knew you'd say that.

 

[Lucas]

Rather than close the thread, I've moved it to the Off Topic forum.

This thread was intended for Kier and/or Mike, not for general discussion, I think I stated it a couple of times already, not sure why it keeps going, usually offtopic threads are closed in my experience.

 

[Kuma]

This thread was intended for Kier and/or Mike, not for general discussion, I think I stated it a couple of times already, not sure why it keeps going, usually offtopic threads are closed in my experience.

Welcome to forums. If you open a thread/topic you will get discussion from everyone. If you do not like it, you may be in the wrong place.