A URL producer/consumer contract

Before we start, a word of apology to geek terminology pedants. Yes, I know that I should really be using the acronym 'URI' rather than the acronym 'URL' in the title of this article but hey, I am human too. I have also been known to use the word 'Hoover' when I really mean 'vacuum cleaner'. I sometimes say 'hard disk' when I should really say 'USB key'...I could go on with more examples and I am sure you could too.



The fact is, I regularly say 'URL' in conversation when I really mean 'URI'. To be sloppy with words is to be human. My field tests have shown that normal living breathing people - whether we like it or not - have internalized the term 'URL' to an incredible degree. The term 'URI', quite frankly, does not occur too often outside of inner geek circles. Terminological correctness aside, the real world is such that the term 'URL' prevails. We pedants just have to live with that fact. When I say 'URL', hereinafter, please feel free to substitute 'URI'...



The great thing about URLs is that you can click on them. One of the most awesome, inaudible rumbles emanating from our planet in this twenty first century, is the constant clickity-hum of a billion mouse clicks created by browser wielding people. Many of these clicks on URLs will just work. However, a not insignificant number will result in a banging noise like this:



'Thank you for your visit, cherished visitor. The page you are looking for does not appear to be available any more. Please contact our administrator or try again later.'



The fact that URL links can fail to work is one of the fundamental features of the approach to hypertext taken in the World Wide Web. There are other approaches of course. Approaches that would ensure that links would never, ever break. However, they all come at very significant extra cost in terms of complexity. On this issue, the world has voted very loudly with its mouse clicking fingers. The world values hyperlinking simplicity over complexity by many orders of magnitude.



Having said that, links that break are a real pain. When visiting a web site, I often come across interesting pages and say to myself 'I want to bookmark this for later'. Then as I load up del.icio.us or my local WIKI pages, I find myself thinking 'Gee. I wonder if this link will work the next time I click on it?'.



Unfortunately, there is no simple way to get an answer to this question. Links on the Web can break. That is the way the Web works...

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