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You're right. URLs like Sony's are exactly the reason why people completely ignore URLs, and the only URL that any average joe ever types in the address bar is www.google.com.

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Actually, no, it goes deeper than that.

Most people never learn how to use the address bar. Period. It's not that the URLs are too hard or complex to learn, it's that they don't know there's anything they could learn to type in there.

Well, part of the reason for that is that people never actually need to learn about URLs, Google is perfectly adequate for the average web browsing needs. And I would say most people know how to copy/paste URLs to share them, so it's not a problem of 'learning' what they are and what they're for.

Despite the google argument, URLs still count for sharing links with people. If you have to email someone a nasty unreadable 140-char URL, it depresses the shareability of that link in every way - digitally, orally and written.

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