“//” In http:// Was A Mistake, Says Tim Berners-Lee

w3c_keysFor decades, Internet users have been typing in http:// in front of the websites they wanted to visit, but according to one of the inventors behind World Wide Web, the two forward slashes was partially a mistake.

Actually you don’t even have to enter http:// in front of the domain name, most browsers today, if not all of them, automatically does that for you.

Tim Berners-Lee describes the two forward slashes in http:// as unnecessary. To the New York Times he explains how URL’s could easily have been created without the use of those two forward slashes.

“But it seemed like a good idea at the time”, Tim Berners-Lee said.

One of the reasons behind him now apologizing for adding them in the first place, is because of his interest in the environment. He believes that the two extra characters have been the cause of extra waste in form of time, paper and ink, through the years.

You can see the entire interview with Tim Berners-Lee below, he makes the comment about “//” around 3:30 into the video.

2 thoughts on ““//” In http:// Was A Mistake, Says Tim Berners-Lee”

  1. Now I know who to curse when I accidentally mess up a url in my blackberry and it turns out http:/url and i have to bother to go back and add the other “/”.
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  2. Thats pretty interesting and I guess if you look at the overall internet usage I bet those two slashes equal out to a tremendous amount of waste.
    .-= Extreme John´s last blog ..Sunday Smash Link Luv, Twittley for Twitter, Yahoo Meme =-.

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