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Comment by SoftwareMaven | Hacker News Reader

I wouldn't be surprised if they are eventually replaced for a system that's more of a search than anything.

There's no need to replace anything. Nobody[1] uses domain names any more to browse the web. That's what Google, the default browser home page, and the omni-bar is for. I don't know a single non-web-developer who uses domain names. Everybody just drops "facebook" or "google"(?!) in the search box that shows up when the browser opens.

1. Well, nobody except for a rounding error number of people who hang out in places like HN.

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I don't know a single non-web-developer who uses domain names

I get your point about the general public, but there is more to the internet and domain names than web browsing :)

Hell I'm a developer and sorta technical and I can never remember the URL/domain to login to Office 365. So I end up using Google and trying to find a reasonable-looking result and then check for a cert that looks right.

And that is why Chrome did away with the bookmark pane. What people do today is largely determined by their choice of browser. I use FF and bookmark my login urls. We are discussing the problems of domain names--part of the basic infrastructure of modern communication for the entire world--in light of the fallout from what was nothing but a calculated decision to increase market share by a single company, which given the history of ICANN, is apparently more influential than most governments of the world, and of the G7, on this point. That should be a wake up call.

https://www.office.com gets you to the main landing page.

It's actually faster to Google and follow the link than to deal with the convoluted system on Office.com.

But that's only because Microsoft made it so damn hard to find anything related to Office 365.

I do, but I suppose I'm included in that rounding error.

(It drives everyone else who's used my laptop for anything crazy - typing something in the address bar only searches my history / bookmarks, no remote communication. If you want to search, use the search bar.)

Though, that being said, I find myself only rarely typing ULs. More of the time the browser is pulling the URL from bookmarks / history.

I have firefox configured to search just my history and even that gets cripplingly slow. I'm incessantly frustrated by the preposterous need for resources of web browsers.

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