Comments for Structure Geek

Comment on WorldCat’s new canonical URIs are ugly and stupid by Alice Sneary

Alice Sneary — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:34:47 +0000

We ALL tilt at windmills at different times. No worries and we always appreciate getting feedback on changes–especially when the impact has unintended consequences.

Comment on WorldCat’s new canonical URIs are ugly and stupid by James Crowley

James Crowley — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 23:05:19 +0000

Alice, thanks very much for the response to my rant; it’s appreciated.

Thanks also for the reminder about the xISBN service; I quite forgot about it. And I do realize that being annoyed by WorldCat’s preference for OCLC numbers is, in a sense, rather missing the point. Since I’ve never forgiven Amazon for introducing those pesky words into their URLs either (or for allowing ASINs and ISBNs to diverge when the latter went to 13 digits), I think I’ll have to acknowledge that zealotry is playing a part here.

(My tag of tilting at windmills may have been rather less whimsical than I thought at the time.)

Comment on WorldCat’s new canonical URIs are ugly and stupid by Alice Sneary

Alice Sneary — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 20:07:25 +0000

Hi James. You can continue to use the OCLC number-based URLs (for example, Marley and Me could be http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/58431841) and they will resolve. You CAN use the shorter URIs if you’d prefer.

The shift was designed to make things easier for humans to guess at a WorldCat link. There IS also an xISBN Web Service from OCLC that you may find valuable if you prefer ISBNs to OCLC numbers.

Thanks for taking the time to share your frustration about the change, and for providing some insight into why this change doesn’t help you.

Comment on Naked Structure by Stevish

Stevish — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 23:49:02 +0000

Hot stuff. Nice ! You have some very well-organized XHTML. Props!

Happy Naked Day!