What do I do if a Promising Web Page Address Doesn't Work?

I just hate it when that happens!

www.encyclopedea.com

www.Barnes & Noble.com

http://primary98.ss.ca.gov/Returns/prop/238.htm

www.nasa.com

www.redcross.edu

microsoft.search.com/http://www.microsoft.com

http://home.earthlink.net/~anteater/

You are allowed to "edit" the URL and try it again.

First, double-check the spelling.  Try eliminating spaces or other punctuation, and reduce the entire phrase to lower case letters.  (Typesetters sometimes "correct" URLs.)

Try clipping off the last few phrases (leaving a "/" slash as the last character), and retrying. Sub-webs may be deleted, and individual pages get renamed, but the Web site is probably still there.  Once you get through to the parent page, you can often navigate to the page you really want.

Make sure the suffix makes sense: ".com" for commercial sites, ".org" for non-profits, ".edu" for schools, and so on.  

If a URL is very long or redundant, maybe they have since shortened it. If it was a personal page on someone else's server, maybe they have obtained a domain name of their own.  Take a guess!

Even links may contain typos.  Some Web pages are actively constructed by the software "on the fly", and missing or extra /s are not uncommon.  As you get used to what URLs typically look like, it will become easier to turn a bad URL good.

Just remember...

The Internet is a Sometime Thing.

There are many reasons why even a good URL can fail you.

Non-commercial sites may need to restrict traffic to please the site management. Sometimes a site must be closed off for part of each month -- the more traffic the site generates, the more days per month it may need to close. Sometimes the Webmaster will post a nice text message inviting you to try again some other time; more often you get one of several cryptic error messages.

Traffic through a particularly narrow bottleneck on the Internet backbone may be so heavy that your connection request "times out".  You get an error message, even though the page you want is ready and waiting for you. 

Web sites may be "taken down" for maintenance or updating. 

Things break.  Servers go down.  ISP owners forget to pay their phone bills.

There are many, many reasons why you might fail to get through to a given page.

The Internet is a Sometime Thing.

Bottom line: just because a site doesn't work, don't assume it's dead. It might just be resting.

Don't rely exclusively on the "bookmark" or "favorites" feature of your web browser. It probably doesn't let you annotate the entries.  It may also be difficult to add bookmarks to sites you can't visit. 

Create a simple text file, with a name like ADDS.TXT, and put a shortcut to it wherever you have shortcuts to your Web browser. Use cut and paste to shuttle URLs between the text file and your browser. (Explorer and Netscape users will both find the Ctrl-L/Ctrl-V key sequence very useful.  AOL users may have better luck with Ctrl-K/Ctrl-V.)

Annotate the file freely. If a site bombs out once, mark an X next to it. When looking for good sites, check out sites with Xs occasionally, but the more Xs, the less often you'll want to check them. If you do finally get through, delete the Xs and add your private comments about the page to help you decide when (if ever) to return to it.

Bookmarks and favorite places are all very well, but with a simple text file and Notepad, you can keep your hotlist lean and clean.

You may prefer to simply name and organize your favorites more informatively:  A folder of "links not yet explored" is a fun thing to keep handy for when you get bored online.