Peter Bissmire

18-08-05

Browsers Good and Browsers Bad

Which do you want, a Web browser or a search portal?

Early versions of Netscape and, later, MS Exploder would, very sensibly, try prepending 'www.' (the conventional default host name for Web servers) to your address bar entry if a DNS lookup failed, in order to arrive at an FQDN. HTTP was assumed to be the default scheme. Only if this failed did they resort to a search engine referal.

When you make an entry in the address bar of most of the more recent browsers, your entry is usually referred to the preferred search engine unless you force the issue by prepending the scheme part of the URL (usually http://) and not omitting 'www.'. Browsers that behave in this way include Google Chrome (sounds like a 50s automobile), MS Edge (a.k.a. Exploder Mk II) and Opera (G&S?). These "latest" browsers were designed primarily for use on touch-screen and mobile devices and appear to assume that the user knows not where to go and needs to search for it.

Now, imagine that you are using one of these browsers on a device connected by Wi-Fi to an intranet (private network running full Internet services). Such networks include many devices (wireless access points, DSL modems, routers, printers etc.) that have Web interfaces for their configuration and status monitoring, as well as, in all probability, the occasional Web server. In order to access these, you will have to enter <scheme>://<serverName>.<domainName> (e.g. http://accounting.location.company) on a device that does not offer the easiest to use typing facility. "Ha", you say, "but you could just enter the IP address!" Not so. One Web server can, from the same address, dish up a number of sites differing only by name. "Anyway," I hear you say, "he's talking about a corporate network, they can impose software policies." Well, I just happen to be running such a network here. You get this site from the public side of my Web server. There is another site at the same address that the search engines don't scan (so-called hidden Web).

So long as I have the appropriate local DNS entry, there is no reason on God's (or anybody else's) earth why I should not, on the private network side, enter "lprint.here" to view my laser printer's status page. Try plugging that into a search engine!

If you're serious about networking, you need a Mozilla-style browser. Firefox is the successor to Netscape, maintains the good old behaviour and, fortunately, is available for Android. Thanks to Firefox, I can view my "phantom" site on my phone while connected to my Wi-Fi without excessive typing.
Search pre-emption may also lie behind the rise of the "" issue.

Just in case you wondered:
I have examined the settings (advanced) options for Opera and Chrome. If I clear the history and enter the FQDN for my printer, they persist in offering a search engine referal. Nothing in the settings alters this behaviour. There is no "Go to" button. Unless the destination is already in the unexpired browser history, the "Go" (or <Enter>) button means "Get a search result for...".