Tomb of the Unkown URL

I snapped this one a while ago using my blackberry, which does not have the best resolution. Obviously, you can't really read the URL. Not sure if that's because the camera sucks or the URL sucks. The answer is probably both. It doesn't take a 10x zoom lens to know that this URL is toooooo loooooong and the alllowercase doesn't give it a fighting chance. Big ups to anyone that can identify this long but not forgotten URL, may it rest in peace.

Update: Nate White didn't let his URL-aholism blur his vision and identified this as ICantBelieveImStillSingle.com. Not sure what could save this one in terms of display. Maybe some alternating fonts or colors. At least they didn't include the apostrophes.

summerpromotion.illinoislottery.com/lotmain.asp

Alichia Keller checks in again with another Bad URL spotting. URLs on Twitter raise some very interesting questions. On one hand, inserting the original URL (as opposed to a TinyURL) can be cumbersome and an eyesore in a 140 character microblog post. On the other hand, it can be important to reinforce your brand and gain SEO link juice by using the permanent URL showcasing your domain. No matter what you choose though, the http:// is critical if you want Twitter to hyperlink the text. Sadly, the Illinois Lottery strikes out on all fronts. There's nothing memorable here nor even a link to click. Clearly, no pot of gold at the end of this rainbow. Or, shall I say, they won't be cashing in with this URL. How about, the chances of anyone clicking this are 1 in a million. Or, perhaps, this URL is not the ticket to a successful promotion. OK, I'm done.

www.WeMoveSeniors.com

Charles Lumpkin spotted this old URL. I won't begrudge them the dubs here because their target audience needs all the help they can get navigating the web. This URL is smoove!

www.eiu.edu/~adulted

Just when you think you've seen it all, a truly one-of-a-kind Bad URL rears its ugly head -- or, in this case, it's ugly tilde. Props to Aaron Bynum who spotted this in the Champaign-Urbana News Gazette. As he pointed out, it's also a best practice not to use the word "adult" in your URL unless you're in the porn industry. This URL makes me say eww, not eiu.

www.therapistschoice.com

Here's another SkewURL. Goes to show how much alllowercase can skew (no pun intended that time) the meaning. This one could easily be advocating for sex criminals to have a say in whether mothers should keep the babies. This URL display is definitely not a wise choice.

Oyster.com

One of my best friends just launched Oyster Hotel Reviews yesterday with the domain Oyster.com. He consulted with me on URL selection and weeded thru a bunch of possibilities before landing on Oyster. My personal bias aside, I think Oyster.com is truly a pearl. It's one word, easy to remember, and ties into the idea of how the current state of finding hotels is like pearl diving -- while many oysters (aka hotels) may look alike from the outside (aka the hotel website) you never really know what's inside until you crack it open (aka check in). I also like how they keep the URL clean on the About and FAQ pages. Leading Cap sans dubs help keep this URL fresh. Good luck Eytan!

Update: I like the slogan too!

Update #2: Did I mention my friend spent over five years at Microsoft building their Live Search engine (now Bing)??? Well, he did. And he knows his stuff when it comes to SEO so he asked me to change the anchor text and link in my post. So I did. This also explains why Oyster Hotel Reviews goes so deep on content (text and images). Search engines love that crap.

ServiceMASTERClean.com

This dirty URL comes via Alichia Keller. Now, I'm all for branding. But sometimes just slapping a dot-com under a logo does more harm than good. In this case the staggering lines here leave the dot-com hanging and the triangle makes you think that maybe the URL is just Clean.com. Needless to say, these guys need to clean up their URL-act.

momsteethstory.com

This cheeky URL was sent in by Cornelius North Carolina's very own Jeff Campbell. These nasty teeth are capped with a Bad URL. The words moms and teeth are weird enough on their own without being mashedtogether. And alllowercase really comes back to bite you when words start or end with the letter "s" as the eye thinks its just a plural. And with teeth already being the plural of tooth, this grill, er... URL's extra jacked.

www.realcitytv.tv

Another SkewURL here. Can't believe they were so late to the game, they couldn't even get RealCity.tv. It's unreal.

DRINKARIZONA.COM

OK folks, we've got another SkewURL here and need your help rating it.

Here are Peter's initial thoughts...

"On one hand, I salute them for using a normally abandoned piece of real estate on the juice jug to promote their site.. but when it all comes down to it, I'm a big naysayer on splitting domain names by line.. Since writing the name horizontally would have been a challenge, it seems they could have easily wrapped the name in a semi-circular fashion around the top and had a more effective presentation (in my opinion).. shoot, they may have been able to wrap the domain name twice, once on the top, then once more below, then used the crown image in the middle.."

And my response...

"I think by the BIG BOLD FONT they get the point across that the 3 "words" go together but I agree that a better presentation would've been wrapping. I'm gonna let the community vote on this one."

So what do you think?

www.websitebyus.com, path.to/domains, www.PresidentObamaAndFamily.com, www.UltimateBeAMomAndWorkPlan.com

Came across these four AdSense ads in my Gmail. Interesting hodgepodge...

The first gets lost in a sea of alllowercase.

The second reads like a sentence telling you that this website is the "path to domains." I like. The alllowercase works here as the punctuation breaks up the words.

The third one seems to be confusing the Government's bailout of GM with selling Obama URLs like they're cars -- financing and all!

And the last one is so looooong it cuts across the gmail frame onto my scroll bar.

Twitter.com/GoodURLBadURL

Good URL Bad URL is now on Twitter. Follow along for random URL-spottings and other related URL-ventures. And tweet any notable URLs you come across to @GoodURLBadURL. 140 characters should be enough to relay even the longest of Looooong URLs.

www.infoprint.com/transpromo

Why would the call to action on this online ad be "Visit us online at..."?!? Um, hello. We're already online. What, did you think might try to go to www.infoprint.com/transpromo using our fax machine??? And it's a good thing you included the www just in case I didn't want to click on the ad directly and decided to type in the full address into my browser.

www.disaronnoasyoulikeit.com

When I first saw this URL, I was reminded of another one that tried to tell us how we like it but got all cute and cut out some letters -- www.justhewayoulikit.com. OK Disaronno, the first sign your URL is too long is that you can't fit the dubs and dot-com on the same line. The second is that arbitrarily lopping off letters is starting to seem like a good idea. This URL-aholic thinks this URL is rock-bottom.

danielislandfarmersmarket.com

How do I know when a trend has hit the mainstream? When my mother or mother-in-law adopts it. First it was Facebook, now it's URL-spotting. What's next... Twitter?!?

This one came courtesy of MeeMaw Marg. She was quick to note the allowercase exasperated by the length of the URL. Since it's only 4 words long and, frankly, a fairly easy one to remember, I won't label it a Looooong URL. Some simple Leading Caps would really allow this URL to ripen.

MOREMPG4ME.COM

Thomas Umstattd Jr. has been on an URL-tear lately. He spotted this one at a gas station. While I won't begrudge the acronym for Miles Per Gallon since it's fairly well-known and contextually relevant. Nor will I rip on the staggered spacing as the alternating fonts and colors help it flow. I am, however, a noted hater of IM lingo in URLs. It may work in Tiny URLs but, as part of a branded ad, it doesn't do it 4 me.

www.HomeFreeLanceWriters.com

Here's a case of Leading Caps gone wrong. Last I checked, it was spelled Freelance. This Bad URL Display makes me think it's a campaign to free some guy named Lance Writer from his home. Couldn't be any further from the intent of course, which is to have people (named Lance or otherwise) work from their homes as freelance writers. It's too bad, one less Leading Cap and this URL could've been home free.

www.d-fend.us

This just goes to show that my rules are not hard and fast. I think this one works despite the dubs, alllowercase, dash, abbreviation and alternate domain. I like the play on words with "defend us." And since .us is not a popular TLD using the www helps reinforce that this is indeed an URL. And the dash helps the D-Fend abbreviation stand out. So, despite going 0 for 5, this URL comes up with some clutch defense to claim victory. Thanks to Jamie Forrest for the spot here!

counselors@adleriancenter.com

Here's another one from Good URL Bad URL mailbag. Ron Patrick spotted this email address in a TV ad. Outside of the awkwardness of promoting their email address instead of their URL, the alllowercase makes is difficult to pull the words out of this string.

Important lesson here -- the same rules that apply to URLs apply to email addresses! The folks at Adlerian could sure use some web counseling. Hopefully they'll come across this post and heed my advice. And if they have any treatment for URL-aholism, I'd welcome a return favor!

USanFranOnline.com/WebMag

Here's a SkewURL that Peter sent in some time ago but slipped thru the cracks. Unfortunately, Leading Caps can't save this URL. It gets off to a bad start with the U next to the S which the eye is training to think United States. I read it as US an Fran Online thinking who is Fran and why are we with him/her online? And tacking on /WebMag makes an already too looooong URL even longer. As Peter said, "P-U."