Capitalizing Web Addresses
In written correspondence, which is best:
- dailydoseofexcel.com
- DailyDoseofExcel.com
- DailyDoseOfExcel.com
- www.dailydoseofexcel.com
- www.DailyDoseofExcel.com
- www.DailyDoseOfExcel.com
- http://dailydoseofexcel.com
- http://DailyDoseofExcel.com
- http://DailyDoseOfExcel.com
- http://www.dailydoseofexcel.com
- http://www.DailyDoseofExcel.com
- http://www.DailyDoseOfExcel.com
I personally prefer #1, all lowercase and no unnecessary prefix. But I think I’m in the minority. One of the capitalized ones is probably easier to read, but I’m no sure about the “of”. Thoughts?
Mild preference for #6. The internal caps make it easier to separate the words.
Kind of like preferring:
LongVariableName
to:
longvariablename
I like #3 personally. The ‘http:’ and ‘www’ is obvious, but the capitalised letters makes it a little easier to me.
But #1 would be my second preference.
I prefer #4 or #5. The main reason for this is that it usually allows for people to click on the address and open it up automatically in a web browser. 7-12 has the “http” prefix, which I find unnecessary.
No need to capitalise the “of”.
Without the upper case letters, I’d think the name referred to an SEO site run by a guy named Fexel:
daily do seo fexcel
10-12 have the added benefit of potentially becoming SEO back-links. Many CMTs (and other types of renderers) will automatically create an anchor tag when rendering the http:// (at least this optimises your chances).
# 6 is in my opinion the quickest to read and comprehend and has the best info to ink ratio.,.
Unless there is a compelling reason, I tend to stick with #3 (or #6, see below). When I use underscores to separate words, I usually lowercase “of” and “or” and similar words (proper English and all). Unless there is a need to have the prefix (i.e., opie.wcu.edu), it seems cleaner to leave the “www” off (wcu.edu is our main page), though many people are familiar with “www” being the MAIN page (www.wcu.edu). The use of “http://” is only helpful when you want to make it easy for someone or something to connect via a click (though there are add-ins that can work without the prefix).
Just my 4 cents (inflation has caused my contribution to be worth more).
David
I think I’d opt for #6, for exactly the same reasons as @Patrick.
I would vote for #2. http:// is not necessary with the suffix .com, and I feel sorry for all of those consumers who still type www (worse is for the sites that don’t show up without http://www.).
The of is not something that would be capitalized in a title, so I would leave it lowercase.
What’s written correspondence?
I’m used to web addresses being all lower case (#4 or #10), but it depends. If you’re writing an email, any of those would resolve. And type any of those into a browser address window and it will resolve.
And you should add a forward slash at the end of the URL, because some web servers will take longer to resolve the name if it’s missing.
@ David Onder – that would have to be hyperinflation
Hi Dick -
Do you think of it as DDoE or DDOE in shorthand? I’d let that be your guide.
Personally, I’m a DDoE fan.
…mrt
#4 or 5. I have seen some site that do not start with www so I don’t like that to be implied or assumed.
I’m a #1 or #4 supporter depending on the perceived experience and knowledge of the person I’m communicating with. I use #10 if dealing with a known Noob.
Ed
If the written correspondence is of the paper variety I prefer #1. The protocol is a given. If it’s written in a digital format then I prefer #7 since that is most likely to be converted into a link for me. I really dislike it when the URLs are camel cased; it makes me feel like the author thinks I’m an idiot and can’t decipher their URL without help.
The only time I feel camel casing is appropriate is when the URL can be easily mistaken for a less desirable phrase. Examples:
Experts Exchange – http://www.expertsexchange.com
Pen Island – http://www.penisland.com
and others found at http://independentsources.com/2006/07/12/worst-company-urls/
I prefer #3, much easier to read. I’m definately in the “capitalize the O” camp.
Personally, I prefer #4. And for the record, you can’t argue the implied http://www. Most sites work with or without, but there are sites that do not prefix with www and will not work with it and vice versa. It totally depends on how it was set up. The http:// is pretty much implied though, unless you use https://
I like #6
like #1 as well.
#6 – John W is right – CamelCasingMakesThingsEasierToRead
For written (paper I presume) then 1 or 3, in that order.
Online? 10, 1 then 4 in that order (keepin’ it lowercase, yo), but append a forward slash to the url of 10 as JP says.
I prefer either 3 or 6, and I would use 3. Note, though, that WWW is technically a subdomain of your site. If you leave that off then you may end up with duplicate content problems in search engines. I think that you use WWW in all of your links, so you should redirect any non-WWW access to http://WWW. Here’s the .htaccess code to do that:
# Redirect if dailydoseofexcel.com (case-insensitive) to http://www.dailydoseofexcel.com
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^dailydoseofexcel.com [NC]
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.dailydoseofexcel.com/$1 [R=301,L]
That assumes that you are on an Apache server and have control over the .htaccess file.