[uf-discuss] "Well-known" URLs

Angus McIntyre angus at pobox.com
Sat Feb 10 15:58:17 PST 2007


I apologize in advance for bringing up something that is not really a 
microformat (although it's arguably 'microformat-like'), but does 
anyone know if any projects have looked at identifying and 
standardizing 'well-known' URLs?

By a 'well-known' URL, I mean one that is commonly used across a wide 
range of websites to point to a particular type of content. Some 
exist already, usually as a result of a unilateral decision by a 
provider, i.e.

	http://somedomain/favicon.ico
	http://somedomain/sitemaps.xml

But I could also imagine others, such as:

	http://somedomain/help/
	http://somedomain/contact/

The alternative to this approach is to use <link> elements with 
appropriate 'rel' attributes to point the way to a given type of 
content. In general, I prefer the <link> approach because it allows 
the author more control over the logical arrangement of their site. 
However, I'm a big fan of hackability in URLs, so I can actually see 
some scope for defining a set of 'well-known' URLs for 
typically-found content.

Reactions? Opinions? Pointers to a more appropriate place to look for 
information or discussion about this?

Angus


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