Hi Guys/Gals,

I have seen various websites removing the www from their domain.

E.g you type http://www.techcrunch.com it redirects you to http://techcrunch.com

same with twitter
when you type http://www.twitter.com it redirects you to
http://twitter.com

Why do webmasters prefer non-www domain names.

I know its easy to set a 301 redirect in your control panel and I myself on my website have done a 301 redirect to my www conatining domain name, so that when somebody types a non-www url for my site he/she is redirected to a www containign URL.

301 redirects are usually implemented to keep one only domain either a www containing or non-www containing domain so that the search engine traffic is not distributed between two domains. And also you get a clear picture about the progress of your website.

Anyways any inputs on non-www containing domains???

If you know a bit about how domains work, (not saying you don't) just hypothetically, I guess...Then, if a site does NOT have www, then it can be accessed by just typing twitter.com (Domain, without the prefix) instead of www.twitter.com (the prefix), I guess easier to do that for some of us web surfers.

Originally Posted by Brian07002

If you know a bit about how domains work, (not saying you don't) just hypothetically, I guess...Then, if a site does NOT have www, then it can be accessed by just typing twitter.com (Domain, without the prefix) instead of www.twitter.com (the prefix), I guess easier to do that for some of us web surfers.

you know typing a www containing domain name is much easier.
just type the name of the website and hit ctrl+enter....you'll be directed to that website with www contained domain.

It makes no difference and not all webmasters do it.

for example , Its the opposite when i type google.co.uk into a browser. I get www.google.co.uk

Its more than likely an "image" thing.

Ie, Twitter want to be called TWITTER not WuhWuhWuh Twitter..

It just helps with the product name i would suspect and its nice to keep things the same across the board.

WWW is just a subdomain, there is nothing particularly special about it. I believe it is a holdover from the late 80s and early 90s when it was common for a domain to not point to a web server, for instance example.com might point to a telnet, ftp, or smtp server.

One reason it is still used has to do with cookies. Standards dictate that a cookie set for a domain (ie example.com) should be included in any request made to both that domain, and any subdomains (ie foo.example.com). The opposite is not true however. In other words if you set a cookie for example.com it will be included in any requests made to foo.example.com. However a cookie set for foo.example.com will not be included in a request to example.com.

If foo.example.com does not need the cookies set for example.com then you are just wasting network traffic. A common solution is to use www. example.com in place of example.com

I can't agree more with NullPointer, this technique is also mentioned on http://developer.yahoo.com/performance/rules.html

Twitter and techcrunch don't need subdomains (although twitter uses subdomains, for ex. business.twitter.com, but don't require logined user info in that subdomain), so they remove www to keep URL as short and easy for memorizing as possible. Facebook, Google, Yahoo... on ther other hand need logined user info on their subdomains.

I use non-www version for my website, too.

there is no difference for google index in www. or without www, but in yahoo, the site with www. will be consider as a subdomain of website. You can use the yahoo site explorer. site with www. and without www. will have different back link report. most of hosting will auto-redirect the www. to the domain name without www because site without www. is easy for people to remember.

I think everyone knows www.

Funny thing is my friend who doesn't know anything about computers made himself a email address, it is wwwhisname@hotmail.com

its branding. it doesnt matter either way.

there will be a redirect set up from http://xxxx --> www

or

www --> http://xxxx

there is no 'technical', UI or 'secret' reason

Its just personal preference as to whether you want the www. or non-www. For me, I prefer to keep all my sites with the www, except for my link drop removed site and my link drop removed site, because both look better without the www.

I think it's important to choose one or the other version, and then redirect the other one to the one you chose. I prefer the "www" version, so I redirect the non-www to the "www". I have no idea why a few people prefer the non-www. Most people expect the www and it's easy enough to re-direct to it...
I guess it's like asking why do some people prefer the morning and some people prefer the evening...
Just remember to re-direct one to the other to consolidate your links if you worry about seo.

it's just for web surfers easier to type domain names that's all

People always used to type www into the browser address,see the www.yourdomain.com as a site's domain name,actually it is just a subdomain name.

There are times when this is necessary, with a secure certificate there is a distinct difference between a domain with or without www. If the cert is for domain.com and someone comes into the site (or area of) the site with the certificate via www.domain.com the visitor must be redirected to domain.com.

Originally Posted by cindyfowler

People always used to type www into the browser address,see the www.yourdomain.com as a site's domain name,actually it is just a subdomain name.

Cindy, Are you sure that the www. is a subdomain? I've never heard that before. I thought the www and the non-www were exactly the same. A subdomain would be http://subdomain.yourdomain.com (subdomain being different than yourdomain... am I wrong?

Originally Posted by TheBigToad

Cindy, Are you sure that the www. is a subdomain? I've never heard that before. I thought the www and the non-www were exactly the same. A subdomain would be http://subdomain.yourdomain.com (subdomain being different than yourdomain... am I wrong?

WWW is just a subdomain. I figured this out the hard way when I didn't create an A/AAAA record for www when configuring my DNS after a host switch.

That is a sign of good manner... I suppose nothing more. That means that you can use that and can not use that at all. I do not see any strange situation there. And for SEO benefits www and without www are being merged.

For backlinking and submitting to major search engines I always take the www. out. and always put / after the domain. I guess it's a matter of preference of the site owner wanting www.theredomain.com or http://theredomain.com . But what I hate is when site owners mask the url in the browser window and when you surf the site it only shows there main url. Dohhh upsetting anyhoo lol

You decide what will be core with www or without then install redirect and that's all.
Both are equal for SE.

When you check the PR rankings of your website, there will be a difference between the PR of the www prefixed page and the one without www.