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philm · Oct 23, 2004, 04:12 PM

If you just type 'apple' into the URL line in Safari and other browers, it quickly turns into 'www.apple.com'. How does this happen - at local browser level or some sort of DNS process? I might have wanted the illustration agency at www.apple.co.uk - this process discriminates against the illustration agency in favour our much beloved computer company. Perhaps.

This works for lots of other URLs.

Just curious as to how this works.

ReggieX · Oct 23, 2004, 04:17 PM

If you try it IE on Windows, it'll take you to the MSN search feature. It's a shortcut that Netscape introduced way back when, nothing to do with DNS or anything other than the browser itself.

If you wanted apple.co.uk, you should type that instead.

iBook · Oct 23, 2004, 05:08 PM

Actually it seems Mozilla does this as well. Not sure about other browsers though. It pretty much just inserts www. and .com automatically.

PurpleGiant · Oct 23, 2004, 05:35 PM

Originally posted by iBook:
Actually it seems Mozilla does this as well. Not sure about other browsers though. It pretty much just inserts www. and .com automatically.

This is correct. No trickery involved - the browser just looks to see if 'apple' is a legitimate URL. When it finds nothing there, it tries adding a www. and a .com. If there is no .com, you will get an error - it doesn't keep looking for a .net, or .co.uk...

Angus_D · Oct 23, 2004, 06:25 PM

For a second there I thought VeriSign had re-introduced their SiteFinder atrocity. *shudder*

bradoesch · Oct 24, 2004, 12:48 AM

On Windows� you've gotta hit Control+Enter and it'll add www. and .com to your URL. Not near as nifty as just typing apple.

maxintosh · Oct 24, 2004, 12:38 PM

What's REALLY weird is that if I just type "amazon" it won't take me to www.amazon.com. This has happened to me on every computer I've tried it on.

villalobos · Oct 24, 2004, 12:55 PM

Originally posted by maxintosh:
What's REALLY weird is that if I just type "amazon" it won't take me to www.amazon.com. This has happened to me on every computer I've tried it on.

Works fine on Camino and 10.3.

Luca Rescigno · Oct 24, 2004, 02:54 PM

Worked here, Firefox 0.9.3 on Windows at work.

PacHead · Oct 24, 2004, 02:58 PM

Works on safari also.

Luca Rescigno · Oct 24, 2004, 03:03 PM

Maybe you're just drunk, maxintosh.

maxintosh · Oct 25, 2004, 01:19 AM

Maybe. Blah.

I think it may have to do with my University's connection. Because it happens to all the machines here.

I will try it when I bring my laptop home next time and see what happens.

CharlesS · Oct 25, 2004, 02:38 AM

The nicest part is that with most browsers, you can type a slash after the name and add a subdirectory, and it will complete smartly. For example:

apple/macosx expands to http://www.apple.com/macosx

This can be really handy for the webmail account on a web host with a domain, which often requires you to put a subdirectory in the URL.

This little trick works with Safari, Camino, OmniWeb, Shiira, and iCab. It unfortunately doesn't work with FireFox or IE, which means you can't do it on a Windows machine.

storer · Oct 25, 2004, 02:52 AM

It works in Firefox Windows.

Thorin · Oct 25, 2004, 03:02 AM

Doesn't work in Firefox (1.0PR) in Windows here. If I type in "apple" and hit enter, then I get "www.apple.com". If I type in "apple/macosx", then I still get "www.apple.com". It seems to just ignore whatever is after the "/".

CharlesS · Oct 25, 2004, 03:12 AM

Originally posted by storer:
It works in Firefox Windows.

Not when I tried it.

(wataru will now enter this thread and berate me loudly for pointing out a feature that Camino has and Firefox doesn't)

Gankdawg · Oct 25, 2004, 07:31 AM

Originally posted by ReggieX:
If you try it IE on Windows, it'll take you to the MSN search feature.

And that's one way how they pump up their number of search requests.

storer · Oct 25, 2004, 04:48 PM

Originally posted by CharlesS:
Not when I tried it.

Still working for me.

juanvaldes · Oct 25, 2004, 05:06 PM

This is simply a shortcut in Omniweb so for you no-american folks you can change this feature.

mrtew · Oct 25, 2004, 06:42 PM

I think it does that for any site that you have bookmarked. And most Apple browsers have Apple.com bookmarked from the factory. Try erasing your bookmarks and see if it still does it!

PurpleGiant · Oct 25, 2004, 07:23 PM

Originally posted by mrtew:
I think it does that for any site that you have bookmarked. And most Apple browsers have Apple.com bookmarked from the factory. Try erasing your bookmarks and see if it still does it!

Yep, still does

CharlesS · Oct 25, 2004, 09:29 PM

Originally posted by mrtew:
I think it does that for any site that you have bookmarked. And most Apple browsers have Apple.com bookmarked from the factory. Try erasing your bookmarks and see if it still does it!

I know for a fact that Safari, Camino, Shiira, and OmniWeb work the way I've described and don't look it up in the bookmarks. Not sure what Firefox is doing, but I have had it say "accessing google.com" briefly in the status bar, so maybe it's doing an "I'm Feeling Lucky" search on Google or something.

proton · Oct 26, 2004, 01:55 AM

Originally posted by maxintosh:
What's REALLY weird is that if I just type "amazon" it won't take me to www.amazon.com. This has happened to me on every computer I've tried it on.

As you tried it all on machines at your university, it's possible that there's actually an "amazon.yourschool.edu", which it will try instead.

The standard order to try these things is:
- Lookup the host directly
- Lookup the host with your "search domains" attached. These are usually the domain your host is in, so yourschool.edu, yourcompany.com etc.
- Try www.<host>.com

At least that's my guess

- proton

jbartone · Oct 26, 2004, 04:31 AM

Firefox 1.0PR on Windows does an 'I'm Feeling Lucky' search.