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Fix no www

Comments (5) · 18 October 2008 · permalink

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Here’s a bee that’s been in my bonnet for a while. Your web-site should work whether you include a www or not.

I get frustrated by web-sites that don’t enable/configure a no-www version. That is, you should be able to type “www.google.com“ or “google.com“ into the address bar of your browser and both should work. This is not an argument for getting rid of the www, but just to make sure that with or without both work.

I was keeping a little list, and have finally published it. Unfortunately it looses a bit of oomph because two of the sites have fixed the problem since I included them on the list. Anyway, send me any sites you find that don’t work unless you include a “www”.

My Fix no www page.

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Permlink: 1 ·
Comment by: Tim ·
Date Stamp: Saturday 18 October, 2008 at 11:22 PM

Wouldn’t it be easier to modify your browser to automatically try adding the www, if the URL doesn’t work?

Permlink: 2 ·
Comment by: Simon ·
Date Stamp: Saturday 18 October, 2008 at 11:30 PM

Can you do that?
I know there are keyboard shortcuts for Firefox that add the “http://www.” and “.com”, “.net” or “.org” to a word you type in the address bar.

Even if there is a shortcut, you don’t necessarily know when you’ll need to use it.

Permlink: 3 ·
Comment by: Tim ·
Date Stamp: Sunday 19 October, 2008 at 03:01 PM

I don’t know exactly how you would do it. Perhaps some sort of plug-in. I’m just saying that it would be easier than retraining all the ignorant webmasters.

The browser would try the address you type in. If it can’t find a valid web page, then it tries adding www to the address.

Permlink: 4 ·
Comment by: Alistair ·
Date Stamp: Monday 2 November, 2009 at 11:22 AM

Simon,

There is a registry setting in Windows that contains a list of protocol prefixes, such as http:// and so on.

You might find if you were to add in http://www as an. additional prefix that it’d try that option when you type directly into the browser bar and you get an error loading the URL in question.

Al.

Permlink: 5 ·
Comment by: Simon ·
Date Stamp: Monday 2 November, 2009 at 05:48 PM

Thanks Al,

I’m on a Mac, and I guess there might be a way to fix it on a Mac as well. Firefox will fix it automatically if you’re using a top-level domain, but not if it’s a 2nd level like “.com.au”.

Still, these are not solutions I can implement everywhere. I work on a locked down Windows system with IE8 (yuk).

Simon.

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Fix no www

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