When we reach for a web site, why do we have to put www.(name).(domain). Why isn't the "www" part automatic?

Question

Is there some alternative to www? Is there a separate secret web that uses "aaa" or "zzz"? If not, why isn't the www part just w, or even not needed?

Answer 1

WWW stands for World Wide Web, and it designates that you are looking for a World Wide Web site. In the early days of the Internet, there were several different protocols available (Gopher being the most prominent that comes to mind). Some of the protocols were free to use and some were pay as you go. A company may have had several different sites posted for the different protocols, so your WWW specified which protocol you were using. The World Wide Web was always a free system, and with the development of NCSA Mosaic, the first really good graphical browser for the WWW protocol, WWW took off.

These days most people think of the Web and the Internet as being the same thing, but actually there's a lot going on on the Internet that has nothing to do with web pages. think of your email - it goes over the internet, but it's not sent using the WWW protocol. FTP, the file transfer protocol, is also different from WWW, and isn't directly supported by most web browsers. And then there's the Usenet and IRC (Internet Relay Chat), which run on their own protocols, but are still on the Internet.

These days, www also designates that you are seeking the root web and not a subweb (www.yahoo.com as opposed to mail.yahoo.com). If you do type in just yahoo.com, the hosting server will refer you to the root web at www.yahoo.com. So really, the only reason we use www now is because it's a part of the internet culture.

Answer 2

"www" stands for World Wide Web. Many people use Internet and the Web as they were one and the same but that's not right. The World Wide Web is just one of many components which make up the Internet. The Internet includes: the World Wide Web, POP3 (incoming email), SMTP (outgoing email), FTP (file transfer protocol)...etc. As to why doesn't web browser don't automatically include "www." a domain name can have several prefixes. For example, the Firefox's website - an alternative web browser - is www.mozilla.org. But, if you want to download the software program, you would go to ftp.mozilla.org. Therefore, in many instances you have to specify which part of the Internet you are referring to.

Answer 3

Because WWW is not always necessary, however, http:// is usually right... and sometimes the system will auto sense the https:// but since www is not universal, it is not auto entered unless you specify that in your auto complete area

Answer 4

Most browsers don't require the www anymore. Granted I still do it, force of habit I guess.

Answer 5

www isn't needed in most cases. I can scarcely remember the last time I typed that.

Answer 6

www is just a convention. Not everyone uses it or must use it. There are folks with name.lastname.org (I control four), interest.lastname.org (I control two), and other possibilities. For forums for example, there are at least three that I frequent that are http://forum.host.net.

Answer 7

some websites dont have www. before them like organisatins ( name.org)

Answer 8

No one forces you to type the www or even the .com or .org. There are keyboard shortcuts that will automatically enter the prefix and suffix of domain names. For example, to access www.yahoo.com, just type yahoo and press the CTRL+ENTER keys. for a .net address just press SHIFT+ENTER, and for a .org address just press CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER

Answer 9

lol actually u dont have to type it at all anymore. all u need is the name.domain and it should work