Scripting News: 1/17/2009

Archive > 2009 > January > 17

Scripting News, the weblog started in 1997 that bootstrapped the blogging revolution.

A URL Czar for Google?

Google should hire someone to beautify their URLs. Seriously would make their products 100 percent more attractive and usable.

I'm always cleaning up their URLs. Why can't they do that for me?

For example -- a Google Map link to the Empire State Building:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Empire+State+Building,+New+York,+NY&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=46.36116,66.708984&ie=UTF8&z=16&iwloc=A

And if you don't sign out first, they include your home address in the URL. Oy. Talk about security leaks. Geez Louise. Someone at Google, please get a clue!

Anyway why shouldn't this be, simply:

http://maps.google.com?q=Empire+State+Building,+New+York,+NY

I just filled out my profile. Its url is:

http://www.google.com/s2/profiles/103628798844723879427

Why not:

http://users.google.com/dave.winer/

And on and on.

Lady Bird Johnson had a program to beautify America's highways. Google needs someone to beautify their information superhighway.

Last update: Saturday, January 17, 2009 at 9:21 AM Pacific.

Dave Winer, 53, pioneered the development of weblogs, syndication (RSS), podcasting, outlining, and web content management software; former contributing editor at Wired Magazine, research fellow at Harvard Law School, entrepreneur, and investor in web media companies. A native New Yorker, he received a Master's in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin, a Bachelor's in Mathematics from Tulane University and currently lives in Berkeley, California.

"The protoblogger." - NY Times.

"The father of modern-day content distribution." - PC World.

One of BusinessWeek's 25 Most Influential People on the Web.

"Helped popularize blogging, podcasting and RSS." - Time.

"The father of blogging and RSS." - BBC.

"RSS was born in 1997 out of the confluence of Dave Winer's 'Really Simple Syndication' technology, used to push out blog updates, and Netscape's 'Rich Site Summary', which allowed users to create custom Netscape home pages with regularly updated data flows." - Tim O'Reilly.

http://twitter.com/davewiner

Dave Winer

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