Re: URL Expansion proposal

While URN discussions are ongoing, none of the proposals for URNs
attempt to deal with the issue of 'short easy names that advertisers
can put on billboards', and none of those currently working on URNs
believe they are trying to solve that problem.

I think there's clearly a need for a simple directory service like
this, that most of the data's already there in Yahoo and Excite to do
a reasonable job of it, and that what it would take is a consortium of
browser developers to agree to a standard (set of) (open) registration
service(s) for their 'open location' menu.

It has to be standard, though, or else advertisers won't use the short
handle to advertise. It has to designate web coolness, too. I think
maybe a new URL scheme, e.g.:

#       about:<name>
# 'about:X' looks up X in the browser vendor's chosen directory
# service. Nice browsers might allow your directory service to be
# reconfigured, or for you to have a list. Some browsers might have some
# directory items wired in.

Then people could just put 'about:ibm' on their billboard and expect
you to find them.

Received on Monday, 15 January 1996 19:51:16 UTC