They're not just lazy; many people don't _understand_ what URLs are. They just navigate the web by googling for site names or whatever content they want.
ha. like my dad
And some are stuck in this way... I have attempted to train/show/explain how the URL bar is also the same as the search field on google.com.... even once they understood, the response was often - "Well, I don't care - this is how I do it and this is how I like to do it"
/pulls out hair
If it works, no matter how ridiculous, it's best just to let it be.
Ha! I know very well what a URL is, but I still navigate the web by googling.
I do too, but that's mostly because my address bar googles every string I type as I'm typing it.
We've basically never left the days of AOL keywords.
To a vast number of people, Google is the Internet. They don't know or care to know what a domain name is; they know the name YouTube and know that they type it into Google and then click the link at the top. That's why short domain names are not as important as unique brand names.