Option to add www. prefix to URL

Pesala

@Sathish804 If I type my domain as aimwell.org it gets expanded automatically to http://www.aimwell.org on pressing Enter.

See also, Settings, Address Bar, Domain Expansion. I have that setting disabled.

Sathish804

@Pesala I also have that setting enabled but my issue is with reddit.

In notifications if I click a comment it navigates to the url starting as https://reddit.com which should be auto prefixed with https://www.reddit.com. But this is not happening.

yojimbo274064400

@Sathish804 said in Option to add www. prefix to URL:

@Pesala I also have that setting enabled but my issue is with reddit.

In notifications if I click a comment it navigates to the url starting as https://reddit.com which should be auto prefixed with https://www.reddit.com. But this is not happening.

AFAIK this is a server side decision / process, for instance:

client request, https://reddit.com
server reply, status 301 Moved Permanently with location of https://www.reddit.com/
client requests location https://www.reddit.com/

yojimbo274064400

@Pesala said in Option to add www. prefix to URL:

@Sathish804 If I type my domain as aimwell.org it gets expanded automatically to http://www.aimwell.org on pressing Enter.

See also, Settings, Address Bar, Domain Expansion. I have that setting disabled.

AFAICS:

client request, aimwell.org
server reply, status 200 OK
client displays page and location bar shows aimwell.org or if selected http://aimwell.org

DoctorG

@yojimbo274064400 And what if example.tld and www.example.tld have different content? You would never get the host without the www.

3WaD

I can confirm this is a bad idea, and I am suprised there's such option in other browsers as it can cause only problems.

Developers set such redirects. And if they want to serve default content on www (which is a subdomain like any other btw), they write the redirect rules in their server configs. But same as www they can choose to serve content on any other subdomain (e.g. www2.site.com - you can sometimes see this if they use multiple servers to balance load or maintance. Based on your language browser settings/cookies they can automatically redirect you to something like en.site.com etc.). Such websites usually have redirects sorted out well, so even if you write the "www", it still redirects you to the right place. But the thing is, many websites don't. On such websites you could potentionally go the www subdomain only to see an error page.

In the history, the www subdomain has been used because the world wide web appeared later than the internet itself. So the adresses already had services attached to them (email, file transfers, remote-terminals, ...) But when people think about the internet today, the first thing in mind are websites. That's maybe why we see the www subdomain less and less. To sum it up - If the main purpose of the domain address is to serve a website, it's main entrypoint (the adress without any subdomains) should also be the entrypoint to such site. And there's no reason why the browser should auto-complete any subdomains to the adress.

yojimbo274064400

@DoctorG, then that is an issue for the site operator to address, i.e. the site's server should not redirect request to www subdomain

FWIW if the prefix option is added then, using your example, the user would never be able view example.tld because their request will be converted by the browser to www.example.tld

yojimbo274064400

@Sathish804 said in Option to add www. prefix to URL:

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In Google chrome we have an option to auto add the www. prefix before the url's not starting with it.
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I am not that familiar with Chrome, where is the option to prefix domain with a subdomain, i.e. www?

DoctorG

@yojimbo274064400 said in Option to add www. prefix to URL:

the site's server should not redirect request to www subdomain

But it is not the server who redirects, it is the browser who decides what user would like to visit. Autopilot for Browsers – will not work.

I dislike such feature as it misdirects and i know if such feature is activated, users forget about it and users will complain that Vivaldi does not work correct.

I do not know why you might think www.anydomain.tld is the same as anydomain.tld. From a view of webstandards, webdeveloper and server admins it is not. Can be the same host and server but does not have to.

May i kindly ask why/where you need a automatically added www. prefix to a domain? Which sites or domains need this in WWW?

yojimbo274064400

@DoctorG said in Option to add www. prefix to URL:

@yojimbo274064400 said in Option to add www. prefix to URL:

the site's server should not redirect request to www subdomain

But it is not the server who redirects, it is the browser who decides what user would like to visit. Autopilot for Browsers – will not work.
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No, it is the server when it responds to the browser that the resource being requested has been permanently move to another location

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I do not know why you might think www.anydomain.tld is the same as anydomain.tld. From a view of webstandards, webdeveloper and server admins it is not. Can be the same host and server but does not have to.
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I am aware they are not the same.

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May i kindly ask why/where you need a automatically added www. prefix to a domain? Which sites or domains need this in WWW?

There is no need and that was the point being made to @Sathish804

DoctorG

@yojimbo274064400 Sad, that my technical expertise differs so much from your ideas.
But never mind, you can support such prefix feature, it will come after some period of time.
Have a nice journey with Vivaldi.

DoctorG

@Pesala said in Option to add www. prefix to URL:

Domain Expansion

Yes, integrated in Vivaldi, but never worked correct for a domain list.

DoctorG

Oh, i remember some rare cases need a browser fixing URLs because user think the cut version is the correct domain.
For example nhs.uk is a registered top level domain and not a domain, same is gov.uk.

yojimbo274064400

@DoctorG said in Option to add www. prefix to URL:

@yojimbo274064400 Sad, that my technical expertise differs so much from your ideas.
But never mind, you can support such prefix feature, it will come after some period of time.
Have a nice journey with Vivaldi.

Not sure why you have chosen to misrepresent my posts as supporting prefixing when they clearly did not.

FWIW following article Redirections in HTTP - HTTP | MDN maybe of help to those seeking a better understanding of the interaction between browser and site sever when requesting a resource.

Sathish804

@yojimbo274064400 Settings -> Show advanced settings -> uncheck Use a prediction service to help complete searches and URLs typed in the address bar or the app launcher search box setting.

yojimbo274064400

That option seems to have been removed as I could not locate it; using latest version of Chrome as highlighted below:

NB enabling Always show full URLs and then:

typing location of example.com, pressing enter key, results in location being shown as https://exampel.com — there no longer appears to be support for prefixing the domain with www? Do you see the same when using the latest version of Chrome?