As someone who lived through the heady days of the Internet revolution, it's been hugely discouraging to see big corporations gradually stuffing the internet genie back into the bottle. Today's edition is that Google wants to kill the URL.
The early internet was amazing because it was something people could aspire to actually understand. There was a time when many people were interested in learning HTML and, as part of that, learning how URLs worked. Nobody does this anymore. Partly, this is because the technology has become so complicated. But a big part of this complexity is actually unnecessary -- and contributes to empowering corporations to create interfaces that conceal the complexity behind a "consumer" experience.
URLs have become a problem because people don't understand how they work. And because corporations have chosen to make really complicated URLs, it can be hard to tell a "real" URL from a fake one cooked up by identity thieves or malware authors.
As it turns out, however, URLs mostly don't have to be complicated. Google *could* instead undertake an effort to punish sites that use complicated URLs (or "link shorteners") and encourage other technology companies to do the same. Instead, however, we see a continuing effort to conceal the complexity and "re-mystify" the technology. It's rather like the annoying "check engine" idiot-light in your car. There's no reason why they couldn't tell you exactly what the light means. But, instead, auto manufacturers have created a system that requires an expensive, proprietary tool to be connected to the car's computer to read-out the code.
Why? More money for them.
- Steven D. Brewer's blog
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