URLs
Q. I noticed an article about the new CMOS that referred to this Web site address without the “www.” See University of Chicago Magazine, August 2003, page 40: “A new Web site (chicagomanualofstyle.org) . . .” In the office where I am a textbook editor, we have been having a rather heated debate about whether you can just delete the “www” from a Web address. My position is that if the “www” is part of the Web address, then the “www” should be included in any printed reference to the Web address. Everyone else has decided that the “www” is superfluous. It is now our style to delete the “www” from all printed Web addresses. However, when I typed “chicagomanualofstyle.org” into my Web browser, I got an error message. When I typed “www.chicagomanualofstyle.org” into the browser, it immediately went to your Web site. For this reason, it seems to me that as long as some Web addresses do not work if you do not type in the “www,” then it should be included.
A. It is our recommendation, throughout our chapters on documentation, to include not only the full server name but also the protocol in any URL: for example, http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/ (note the final slash, which indicates a directory-level URL). The goal of documentation is to lead people to the source cited. It is important, especially as standards and technologies change, to cite the most complete and durable form of the URL. For a full explanation of URLs and related matters, see chapters 16 and 17—on documentation—in the fifteenth edition of CMOS.
In certain settings where information rather than documentation is the goal—in printed magazines and newspapers, for example—space might be at a premium. (Note that in the online version of the University of Chicago Magazine article, where space isn’t much of an issue, the “www” is included; see “The CMOS Syndrome,” by Mary Ruth Yoe, http://magazine.uchicago.edu/0308/features/cms.shtml.) And for promotional materials, the most important consideration is often that people remember your address and will use it. In either setting, the shortest possible form might seem to make the best sense.
Whatever your goal, however, we would advise against a policy that assumes “www” is superfluous. Sometimes two otherwise identical addresses—one with “www” and one without—point to two different servers. Moreover, even if a URL that works with “www” seems also to work without it, be aware that some browsers are programmed by default to add “www” and try again when an address without “www” comes up empty.
