[Sigia-l] URL's for distribution via print/voice/TV.

[MJJAIXEN at up.com]

Currently, we manage over 100,000 web pages on a small number of web sites
on a limited number of servers.  That centralization, while it helps in
keeping track of what's out there, presents difficulties in referring
people to specific sections of the web site from outside of a browser.
This could be in a phone voice-mail system, a videotape, or a print
publication.  Right now, people do one of two things which are long-winded
and cumbersome IMO.

1.  Instruct the user to go to our site, then "click on this", "click on
that", then "click on something else", and finally "click on the last
link".
2.  Give the user the full URL, such as
"http://website.company.com/organization/department/workgroup/program/project/the_file_you_want.htm".

 (Whew!)

Adding to the confusion is that we have most of our traditional "intranet"
content available through 2 different domains; one unsecured as a typical
intranet for office employees, but another secured with SSL and user
id/password for employees to use at home.  (We've thought about combining
the two, but we decided that requiring all users to log in when at office
computers to read general information would discourage use.  Plus there are
a few things that aren't available over the internet.)  The URL's for each
domain are the same after the .com; so at least it's
http://intranet.company.com/some/long/URL and
http://internet.company.com/some/long/URL .

So how should I provide relatively short instructions on how to find a
section of a site?

Option 3:  Add every link directly to the home page.  (Obviously flawed.)
Option 4:  Set up redirecting domains, such as program.company.com that
either automatically redirect people to the right site or actually contain
the content. (And how do I differentiate between security requirements
between internet and intranet users?)
Option 5:  Use keywords like AOL and ESPN.com to direct people directly
towards their content page from their home page.
Option 6:  Redefine the URL space so that all content is addressable from
the root level (i.e. http://mysite.company.com/content) either by moving
content or by creating redirects.

Any other suggestions?  Any thoughts as to what-to-do and what-not-to-do?

Mike Jaixen
Union Pacific