web address protocol

minfaye:

We put resources and web addresses in our health promotion materials and would like to know the proper way to write them.

 

For example, we usually put "www" in front of an address like this www.childprofile.org, but do you think for those addresses that don't start with www (ie: depts.washington.edu/lend) we should include the http:// or are people getting used to the fact that web addresses do vary somewhat?

Even in cases where URLs don't begin with "www", they still technically speaking contain the "www" -- it's still part of the URL even if it is excluded.  And the same thing goes for the "http://" -- it's still really there.  So really you can go either way, but just be consistent in the way you choose to advertise your URL to your audience.  This will avoid confusion in people who are less Web savvy.

But generally the browser will direct people to the correct address whether or not they place the "http://" or "www" in front of the address.

Yann

Yann:

Even in cases where URLs don't begin with "www", they still technically speaking contain the "www" -- it's still part of the URL even if it is excluded.

Unless the site is using sub domains to identify specific resources like in the example

Subdomains are commonly used by organizations that wish to assign a unique name to a particular department, function, or service related to the organization. For example, a university might assign "cs" to the computer science department, such that a number of hosts could be used inside that subdomain, such as mail.cs.example.edu or www.cs.example.edu.

So before going to print, make sure what you list actually gets you to the correct site when typed in to the address bar.

And if I remember there is something to set up in the DNS record to be sure your registered domainname.com will default you to the www.domainname.com resource

Dave