A while ago I read an interesting article that claimed that our current URI addressing scheme is counter intuitive. I do not necessarily support this point of view but I thought it was an interesting point. If you think about it, most URL’s look like this:
subdomain.domain.tld/folder/folder/file.ext
What is so counter intuitive about this? Well, the information is scattered all over the place without any logical arragnement. For example, why do we specify sub-domain before domain, even though in most of our other conceptual models, the child node comes after the parent? Why is the topmost container (TLD) smack dab in the middle of the address? Wouldn’t it be more logical to structure url’s this way:
tld.domain.subdomain/folder/folder/file.ext
Here we have a logical progression – first you type in the most general element of the address (tld) and then you drill down to more specific domain, sub-domain and the actual file. Just like the telephone number, when first you specify the area code.
Obviously, com-dot does not roll of the tongue like dot-com. It seems rather awkward, but the proposed structure is sound from a logical point of view. I’m not advocating changing the current scheme. That would be really stupid. But it’s food for thought.
Now if I could just remember who originally came up with this URL reversal idea… Any clue?
[tags]url, uri, internet, addressing scheme, tld, domain, subdomain[/tags]