[BLOG] Why no 'www'
You probably never noticed, but the address of this site is http://icrontic.com, not http://www.icrontic.com. In fact, we've gone so far as to redirect the latter to the former. So, why no www?
The www convention is really nothing more than that: a convention. It doesn't mean or do anything special. Let's look (briefly) at how domain names work. They go from right to left in levels. The "com" is our first-level domain (aka a "top-level" domain). The "icrontic" is our second-level domain (second-level domains are what most registrars rent out). The "www" would be our third-level domain. You can keep stacking domains on the left side forever, which is how you get those monstrous schoolname.k12.mi.us domains in the US for school websites.
The third-level domain frequently told you what service you were looking for. "www" was the website, "ftp" meant files, and the list dragged on with "telnet", "gopher" and more. Since the late 90s, no one wants anything but the "www" anyway for most sites, but a lot of people continue to tack it on. For most sites except monstrosities like Amazon and Yahoo, it's just extra crap to type.
As a big proponent of readable URLs, I'm always trying to cut the chaff out of web addresses, so save those 'w's for someone else.
The www convention is really nothing more than that: a convention. It doesn't mean or do anything special. Let's look (briefly) at how domain names work. They go from right to left in levels. The "com" is our first-level domain (aka a "top-level" domain). The "icrontic" is our second-level domain (second-level domains are what most registrars rent out). The "www" would be our third-level domain. You can keep stacking domains on the left side forever, which is how you get those monstrous schoolname.k12.mi.us domains in the US for school websites.
The third-level domain frequently told you what service you were looking for. "www" was the website, "ftp" meant files, and the list dragged on with "telnet", "gopher" and more. Since the late 90s, no one wants anything but the "www" anyway for most sites, but a lot of people continue to tack it on. For most sites except monstrosities like Amazon and Yahoo, it's just extra crap to type.
As a big proponent of readable URLs, I'm always trying to cut the chaff out of web addresses, so save those 'w's for someone else.
0