An interesting question about domains

Ye' old general discussion board. Basically, for everything that isn't covered elsewhere. Come here to shoot the breeze, shoot your mouth off, or whatever suits your fancy.
This forum is not for asking programming related questions.

Moderator: General Moderators

Post Reply
impulse()
Forum Regular
Posts: 748
Joined: Wed Aug 09, 2006 8:36 am
Location: Staffordshire, UK
Contact:

An interesting question about domains

Post by impulse() »

I've been using the internet for over a decade and I love web technology but I've never questioned why most websites have their domain prefixed with 'www'.

And today a question hit me - is the 'www' part of a website address just a sub-domain, nothing more and nothing less?
User avatar
shiznatix
DevNet Master
Posts: 2745
Joined: Tue Dec 28, 2004 5:57 pm
Location: Tallinn, Estonia
Contact:

Post by shiznatix »

pretty much. its the subdomain that is used for when you go to their site. Sites will often have http://www.domain.com for their website address, ftp.domain.com for their ftp, mail.domain.com for their mail server...
User avatar
superdezign
DevNet Master
Posts: 4135
Joined: Sat Jan 20, 2007 11:06 pm

Post by superdezign »

www means you're on the world wide web. The Internet wasn't always open to the general public, and consists of more than just the hypertext protocols. The 'www' seems meaningless to us because the world wide web is the most popular Internet application in use, so we've began to see it as THE Internet, even though it's not.
matthijs
DevNet Master
Posts: 3360
Joined: Thu Oct 06, 2005 3:57 pm

Post by matthijs »

there's even an organization trying to get the web www-less http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No-www
User avatar
Ollie Saunders
DevNet Master
Posts: 3179
Joined: Tue May 24, 2005 6:01 pm
Location: UK

Post by Ollie Saunders »

I don't like the Ws, they are so difficult to say.
User avatar
superdezign
DevNet Master
Posts: 4135
Joined: Sat Jan 20, 2007 11:06 pm

Post by superdezign »

ole wrote:I don't like the Ws, they are so difficult to say.
Dubyadubyadubya-dot.
matthijs
DevNet Master
Posts: 3360
Joined: Thu Oct 06, 2005 3:57 pm

Post by matthijs »

The worst thing is that when you visit some sites by typing in somedomain.com, you get a message that the domain doesn't exist. But when entering www. the site does exist.

So make sure that, whatever you use, they both exist and preferably redirect from one to the other
User avatar
John Cartwright
Site Admin
Posts: 11470
Joined: Tue Dec 23, 2003 2:10 am
Location: Toronto
Contact:

Post by John Cartwright »

matthijs wrote:The worst thing is that when you visit some sites by typing in somedomain.com, you get a message that the domain doesn't exist. But when entering www. the site does exist.

So make sure that, whatever you use, they both exist and preferably redirect from one to the other
Yea.. like my university's website, some of the online services require www and some don't.. talk about annoiying.
impulse()
Forum Regular
Posts: 748
Joined: Wed Aug 09, 2006 8:36 am
Location: Staffordshire, UK
Contact:

Post by impulse() »

I never say "double u double u double u' when speaking. I just say 'world wide web'. That way it has 6 less sylabels.
User avatar
RobertGonzalez
Site Administrator
Posts: 14293
Joined: Tue Sep 09, 2003 6:04 pm
Location: Fremont, CA, USA

Post by RobertGonzalez »

"dub dub dub"

3 syllables, for the win!
User avatar
Kieran Huggins
DevNet Master
Posts: 3635
Joined: Wed Dec 06, 2006 4:14 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada
Contact:

Post by Kieran Huggins »

"trip dub"

down to two!

going once... twice.....
User avatar
Chris Corbyn
Breakbeat Nuttzer
Posts: 13098
Joined: Wed Mar 24, 2004 7:57 am
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Post by Chris Corbyn »

"wuuuuhhhh" 8O

One syllable!!
User avatar
superdezign
DevNet Master
Posts: 4135
Joined: Sat Jan 20, 2007 11:06 pm

Post by superdezign »

Chris Corbyn wrote:"wuuuuhhhh" 8O
Wouldn't it be more of a "wwooouhhh?"

Hehe, I can't seem to write it either.
User avatar
s.dot
Tranquility In Moderation
Posts: 5001
Joined: Sun Feb 06, 2005 7:18 pm
Location: Indiana

Post by s.dot »

yeah, that's what it is. nothing more and nothing less =]
Set Search Time - A google chrome extension. When you search only results from the past year (or set time period) are displayed. Helps tremendously when using new technologies to avoid outdated results.
ianhull
Forum Contributor
Posts: 310
Joined: Tue Jun 14, 2005 10:04 am
Location: Hull England UK

Post by ianhull »

I tend to just say, all the double u's

works for me anyway :)
Post Reply