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A URL Czar for Google?

Saturday, January 17, 2009 by Dave Winer.

A simple idea in a twit. Permalink to this paragraph

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

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

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

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  Permalink to this paragraph

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! Permalink to this paragraph

Anyway why shouldn't this be, simply: Permalink to this paragraph

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

I just filled out my profile. Its url is: Permalink to this paragraph

http://www.google.com/s2/profiles/103628798844723879427  Permalink to this paragraph

Why not: Permalink to this paragraph

http://users.google.com/dave.winer/ ;Permalink to this paragraph

And on and on. Permalink to this paragraph

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




     

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A picture named dave.jpgDave 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.

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Last update: 1/17/2009; 9:21:48 AM Pacific. "It's even worse than it appears."

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