Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2014 April 30

Welcome to the Wikipedia Computing Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

April 30

URL's with '›' instead of '/'..!

Hi, Can anyone tell me why some URL's are appearing as example.com› ... ›example instead of example.com/.../example.html in search results? Are there any advantage for this? Can I implement this to my own website?--Joseph 05:39, 30 April 2014 (UTC)

Do you have a real world example? I've never seen that. Dismas|^(talk) 07:54, 30 April 2014 (UTC)

As I said, it's appearing on search results..! Not in the Address bar--Joseph 08:02, 30 April 2014 (UTC)

Here is a screenshot of what I meant:

--Joseph 08:28, 30 April 2014 (UTC)

It would be helpful if you told us what search engine you are using, and on what system. But in any case, that looks more like a breadcrumb trail or an informal statement of the item's path, rather than a URL at all. AlexTiefling (talk) 09:36, 30 April 2014 (UTC)

Guys, I don't know how can I make you understand what I meant..! Please have a look at the screenshot. Also, I don't know whether it is a rare case or not..--Joseph 09:59, 30 April 2014 (UTC)

Well, you could begin by reading what I wrote: Can you tell us what system, browser and search engine you're using? And do you realise that this may not be a URL? — Preceding unsigned comment added by AlexTiefling (talk • contribs)

Thanks for the reply, Alex. So, you're saying that's not a URL..? OK. I'm using Firefox and OS is Win 7. I don't have much knowledge in this field. That's why I posted the question here, in order to clarify my doubt. Anyway can you please go through this link and have a look at results, to see whether it is appearing on your search results?--Joseph 10:10, 30 April 2014 (UTC)

(edit conflict)I tried a search on Google with just some random phrase and can confirm what the OP is seeing. It seems to list after each > the directory that the page was found in. So something like example.com/a/b/c.html would have below it example.com > a > b where you can click on either a or b and it will take you to that directory. I haven't been able to find exactly what triggers it and why only some web pages have this shown below them. Dismas|^(talk) 10:12, 30 April 2014 (UTC)

(edit conflict)Assuming that this is what you're referring to,[1] it's not a URL. It's just text with hyperlinks. A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 10:17, 30 April 2014 (UTC)

Notice that if you mouse over the individual links in the arrowed list, it shows labnol.org/tag/title, so these aren't links to successive directories at all. Even so, it does look like a sort of breadcrumb trail, and definitely not a URL. Compare the arrowed list to the actual URL displayed in the status bar at the bottom of the screen in each case. AlexTiefling (talk) 10:19, 30 April 2014 (UTC)

@ Dismas, A Quest For Knowledge, AlexTiefling Thanks a lot for the replies. Anyhow now I understood something on this. But two doubts are not yet clarified. Why Google is showing this type of links for certain websites and blogs? Is their any benefit with this type of links?--Joseph 10:26, 30 April 2014 (UTC)

Searching Google for "Google search results breadcrumbs" gave me this pretty helpful result. Dismas|^(talk) 10:30, 30 April 2014 (UTC)

Yep..! That's what I need exactly.! Thanks Dismas, for your effort to find it out!--Joseph 10:57, 30 April 2014 (UTC)

Resolved

CNN

I'm getting "OpenDNS" when I try to connect to CNN.[2] Is anyone else experiencing this? Other news websites are functioning normally. And this one, obviously. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 16:39, 30 April 2014 (UTC)

Resolved

 – It seems to have fixed itself.

What you call "resolved," I call "ignoring that you're being phished!" If you are seeing this type of error, it means that you (or someone else) has intentionally (or unintentionally) configured your web-browser to use OpenDNS. Despite its benign name, and the company's defense of its behavior, that company sounds like a malware/adware/spyware company to me. Most users don't want or understand the consequences of proxying 100% of their internet traffic through an external party. Nimur (talk) 17:52, 30 April 2014 (UTC)

I would not disagree except that my wife was seeing the same thing on her PC. In any case, I did nothing other than watch it jump to that page. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 22:00, 30 April 2014 (UTC)

Well, third party DNS often resolve faster than those provided by your ISP. Also some ISPs are known to play shenanigans DNS_hijacking#Manipulation_by_ISPs. SemanticMantis (talk) 18:50, 30 April 2014 (UTC)

Nimur: DNS settings are changed in your operating system (the Network control panel) or in your router, not in your browser.

Baseball Bugs: If DNS settings were changed in your home's router, then all computers that connect to it would be affected. --Bavi H (talk) 00:33, 1 May 2014 (UTC)

Maybe in your operating system, Bavi H! I make my own, and it doesn't have a Network Control Panel! Anyway, you can read why DNS is categorically part of the application-layer: address resolution is application-specific. Nimur (talk) 02:45, 1 May 2014 (UTC)

There may be some confusion here. What I was seeing was an assertion that there was no such website as cnn.com. For example, if I type the url "www.nonexistentwebsite.com", I get the same screen I saw for cnn.com earlier today. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 02:57, 1 May 2014 (UTC)

Look at the bit in my link above about NXDOMAIN. Exactly what you see when there is no such website is controlled by your DNS. So we don't all see the same things. One thing a nefarious DNS can do act as though there is no site, and show you some ads or malware instead. SemanticMantis (talk) 13:47, 1 May 2014 (UTC)

Maybe. As a test, I would like for you to try to url to "www.nonexistentwebsite.com" and see what shows up. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 14:01, 1 May 2014 (UTC)

I just see the standard Firefox message "Server not found - Firefox can't find the server at www.nonexistentwebsite.com." But I'm pretty sure when I used other, less reputable ISPs, that address would take me to various "search" pages or Domain_parking#Domaineering rubbish. But I don't really know how all this stuff works, so hopefully someone else can chime in. If you are seeing something about OpenDNS when you type in that URL, and you never intentionally chose to use OpenDNS service, then someone or something changed some settings on you without your consent, and that might be cause for concern. Or maybe it was just some odd innocent hiccup, I don't know enough to diagnose such issues. SemanticMantis (talk) 14:17, 1 May 2014 (UTC)

In IE, it links to "http://www.website-unavailable.com/main" plus some other stuff. The first line of text is "You tried to visit www.nonexistentwebsite.com, which is not loading." Then "OpenDNS Guide", and then some advertisement links. There is also a "Why am I here?" link which posts the comments "You are seeing this page because the website you tried to visit isn't working. / We've provided search results to help you. Feel free to search for something more specific if we didn't find what you were looking for. / If you believe the website you tried to visit should work, you can check using CacheCheck [which links to http://cachecheck.opendns.com], or retry the website [which restates the url I posted]. I'm fairly certain I've seen this in the past when a website that used to work no longer exists. Which is why I wonder why I would get something like that from cnn.com, unless they took it totally down for some reason; or if it was hacked. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 15:06, 1 May 2014 (UTC)

It's not IE that's doing it. It's OpenDNS, which either you or your ISP has configured your computer to use.

OpenDNS creates "fake" websites if you try to connect to look up a server that doesn't exist. Opinion is very mixed on this "feature". It can cause some technical issues, but mostly people are irritated that it hijacks standard error messages. ((Opendns#Reception).

Why it would do this for CNN.com is a mystery, of course. APL (talk) 20:38, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

APL (talk) 20:38, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

For the record, OpenDNS is no more a phishing or malware scheme than Google's DNS service. — The Hand That Feeds You:^Bite 19:14, 6 May 2014 (UTC)