URLs in spoken form

In My Humble Opinion
1

This subject came up briefly in IRC, and I got to wondering. I’ve read somewhere, possibly in The Jargon Lexicon, that Europeans tend to pronounce the dots when saying a URL out loud (ie “dubya dubya dubya dot straightdope dot com”), whereas Americans usually leave them out (“dubya dubya dubya straightdope com”). However I studied a unix component as a part of one of my maths subjects at university, within which I was told that the nomenclature was the opposite way around - that Americans do pronounce the dots, and Europeans don’t. Furthermore, when discussing the matter in IRC today everybody I talked to, regardless of point of origin, claimed to say the dots out loud when verbally giving a URL.

As I figure the likelihood changes both with how “geeky” people are and where they come from, my incredibly trivial questions for the Teeming Millions are as follows:

  1. Are you a “Dotter” ? That is, do you pronounce the dots when saying a URL out loud?

  2. What country do you live in?

  3. Do you work in the IT industry?

I guess the operating system of choice could have an influence as well, but this isn’t meant to be a scientific linguistical study - just a matter of idle curiosity. Thanks!

2

For the record:

  1. Yes, I say “dubyadubyadubya dot somedomain dot com”.

  2. I’m Australian, have lived here all my life.

  3. I don’t work in IT, but I’ve got lots of friends who do.

And I’m mostly a Windows boy, if that makes any difference.

3
  1. Dot pronouncing.
  2. New Zealand born and reside.
  3. I call on IT folk for help when disaster looms. (No, I’m not in IT). :slight_smile:
4
  1. Dub-dub-dub dot straightdope dot com.
  2. Aussie born and bred
  3. Definitely not an IT person, but Mr Goo who is says the same.

(I’m obviously hipper than those silly ‘dubya’ kiwis with my shortened ‘dubs’ :wink: )

As for preferred OS, I’m an XP girl and Mr Goo deals mostly with Unix and 2K Server for work and OpenBSD for fun :slight_smile:

5

Au contraire, delightful Goo – local EnZed radio stations have been dubbing the URLs for yonks. :slight_smile:

I’d say, “hip-wise”, you’re on a par. :stuck_out_tongue:

6
  1. i’m a dot’er
  2. Canada
  3. Work in IT.
    by far the best url to say is “dubya dubya dubya dot slash dot dot org” :slight_smile: www.slashdot.org

or… “dub dub dub dot dot dot com” www.dot.com, which i always wished i could register

7

  1. If you don’t say dot… most people won’t know to type it… so yes I say dot… actually I don’t think I have ever heard anyone leave the dots out… that just sounds odd…

  2. US

  3. Work in IT

8

  1. I’m a dot-girl

  2. Raised in Europe / US

  3. Nope

9

  1. Yes.

  2. USA.

  3. No.

I have never heard anyone not use dot. I call my dog Dot too.

10

I say the “dot”, but not the WWW, so I’d say straight dope dot com.
Born/raised/currently live in the Southern U.S.

Nope, not in the IT field. Former Internal Auditor, currently in school to be a librarian.

11

  1. Depends on who I am talking to. I skip the dots if i am talking to someone with at least some computer savvy. If I am talking to my mother on the other hand I would make sure to mention every dot otherwise she’ll call me when she cannot get the url to work.

  2. Sweden.

  3. No.

12

  1. I say dots, but not usually the initial “WWW”, like Lsura says.

  2. United Kingdom.

  3. I work in IT, but most people here have an electronics background.

13

  1. My inclusion or omission of “dot”, 'www", etc. will depend largely on how experienced the person I am talking to is with computers and the Internet. For co-workers and for friends/family who use computers all the time I don’t bother if it’s a familiar and frequently visited site. I’ll just say the site name (e.g. “go to Google and search for it”, or “I bought a really cool book from Amazon”). If the site is lesser known then I’ll just say the URL name followed by the “dot” com/net/org, etc. If it’s a long URL or if the URL is not as easy to understand verbally I’ll spell it out. I only mention “http” if the URL doesn’t have a “www” in it. For less computer literate people I find that it’s best to say the “www” and the “dot”.

  2. I live in the US.

  3. I do work in the IT industry.

14

  1. I say the dot. Mainly to preempt managers’ phonecalls when the URL doesn’t work without them…

  2. UK-based

  3. I work in IT.

15

  1. Dot person here (and I “dot” a lot - I have to give out a web address over the phone 100s of times a month and it has 4 “dots”.)

  2. US, y’all

  3. Nope - environmental

16

1.) Yes
2.) Brooklyn
3.) Yes

Windows, Linux, Solaris, you name it.

17
  1. Yes*
  2. UK
  3. Yes

*I hate trying to speak URLs; invariably it will be something like www.ultracom.com and the person on the other end of the phone will be saying “infra dot com?.. infra dot com dot com?.. boo hoo, I don’t understand!”.

18

oops, except they would be saying “ultra dot com?.. ultra dot com dot com” :o

19

I dot, but don’t dub. In other words, “somedomain dot com” My only exception is if it’s a freakish weirdo like “ww2 dot newdomain dot com” or “aych tee tee pee ess colon slash slash securedsite dot com” (https://securedsite.com)

Want to really confuse someone? Send them to “dot com dot com” (www.dotcom.com) which resolves to Network Solutions.

I’m in the US and drive a helpdesk, so yep, I’m in IT.

20

For your useless info of the day, the letter is spelled “aitch.” You can look it up :slight_smile:

As for the OP:
Dots, no dubs
US
Yep, IT.