Re: lynx-dev lynx: "guessing" foo.com ==> foo.com.org (???)

[Dave Eaton]

On Mon, 14 Sep 1998 address@hidden wrote:

> Yow!  Is there also a "www.com"?

Yes, there is ... it rolls over to http://www.eni.net/

> What if someone is accustomed to shortcutting to "com" and expecting the
> browser to guess "www.com.org" and someone suddenly creates "www.com"? 

Today that person will go the the "Epoch Internet" Web site.

> I think guessing is a Bad Idea.

Without some way as a user to control what "guess" went in which order, I
certainly agree. I've already seen cases where "www.XYZ.com" and
"www.XYZ.org" both exist, but are different entities. Someone used to just
putting in "XYZ" when they wanted "www.XYZ.org" got the ".com" site, then
complained to the "www.XYZ.org" entity that their site didn't contain
what they were told it would. Since the person didn't understand what was
happening, they never realized they needed to try a different top level
domain -- they didn't even know there was such a thing.

Then imagine a parent's frustration if their child just enters
"whitehouse" ... though if you've done that, you may realize there are
those who might contend that these days there's not much difference in the
result. <g>

There are some reports that the "big two" are looking at "smart guessing" 
which (at least according to one report I read -- and lost the reference
to) translates into "first 'guess' the URL that paid me the most money,
then 'guess' the next, etc." The extrapolation can get pretty scarey.

No thanks, I'd rather not have that help. 

 Dave Eaton
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