Referer URI MUST NOT include a fragment

During a discussion [0] about why Youtube uses ?feature=related in its  
URIs, I observed that the Referer header URI, if it included a  
fragment identifier, could be used identify the anchor used to  
initiate a GET. This would be useful for

- analysing anchor popularity,
- eliminating the need for workarounds and hacks like Youtube ? 
feature=related
- encourage cleaner, canonical URIs.

I did a search of discussions around the HTTP protocol, but was not  
able to find the origin of the statement from RFC2616 Section 14.32  
[1], paraphrased in the subject of this message. This statement is  
also in draft-ietf-httpbis-p2-semantics-05, section 10.6 [2].

I seek links to the discussion or rationale and origin of this  
statement, or failing that, comments about how allowing fragment  
identifiers in Referer URIs would enhance or violate web architecture.

Thanks,
-Vincent Murphy

0. http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/7x49v/canonical_url_tag_the_most_important_advancement/c07ne0v
1. http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec14.html#sec14.36
2. http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-httpbis-p2-semantics-05.txt

Received on Saturday, 14 February 2009 16:41:30 UTC