A URL, or Uniform Resource Locator, is a technical term for what is commonly known as a website address. In a web browser, the URL field is where a user can type or paste an address like wisegeek.com. While domain names are not case sensitive, the rest of the URL is. In our example, this would be anything that follows “.com” as in wisegeek.com/are-urls-case-Sensible.htm.
A URL is a technical term for the address of a website.
Every website is hosted on a server, a type of computer that runs continuously to provide constant access to the websites it hosts. Servers running Windows® operating systems are case-insensitive in URLs, interpreting identical spellings as the same address. However, a server running a Linux® or UNIX® operating system would interpret the two different caps as pointing to two different page addresses. This can be a problem for some webmasters.
For example, a person named Jack created a website for gamers. Jack’s hypothetical website features blog pages, news, tips, tricks, and forums, has many pages, and has gained a large following over the years, passing several thousand visitors per day. When Jack was building the site, he used uppercase and lowercase letters to name each page, such as “Tips and Tricks.” html”, because it was easier to read than “tipsandtricks.html”. In the embedded links, he used a small box to point to the pages. Other sites that link to Jack’s pages may also use lowercase letters.
One day, Jack receives an email notifying him that his hosting service will be upgrading their servers and migrating the sites to newer machines. Jack notices that when this happens, his traffic drops significantly on many of his pages. Since his address hasn’t changed, Jack may wonder what happened.
If the new computers are running Linux® or UNIX® operating systems, Jack’s URLs will suddenly be case sensitive, just like any folder you’ve created on your website. Links to “…/tipsandtricks.html” would result in a 404 error page, a message announcing that the page could not be found. Over time, search bots would make the right connections, but revenue and traffic would be lost in the meantime. To correct the situation, he can ask his host to allow him to edit the 404 error page so that it forwards visitors to the correct addresses.
This case-sensitive rule also applies to folders. If a webmaster creates a folder on a Linux® or UNIX® host server, such as “…/html/Folder1/”, this is different from “…/html/folder1/” and none of the pages contained in that folder will be accessible in Internet without the appropriate case specified in the embedded links.
While Microsoft® operating systems have dominated public servers, making case-sensitive URLs less of a consideration, that may be changing. Linux® offers attractive alternatives, and the popularity of open source software continues to grow. Ideally, today’s webmasters will create addresses, embedded links, and folders that they can easily swipe from one host or operating system to another. This should ensure traffic and revenue retention and make migration stress-free for webmasters and visitors.
