The 404 Web | Perishable Press
Over the years, I’ve changed thousands of URIs. Maybe hundreds of thousands if you count changing everything over from http:// to https://. It always feels kinda wrong to modify URIs. Maybe that comes with a basic understanding that Cool URIs don’t change. But I also understand that, in reality, URIs change constantly. It’s just the nature of the World Wide Web, an endless perpetually evolving flow of digital information, URLs and links included. As stated by the W3C:
I would estimate over half of all URIs will change at some point in their lifespan. Of those, more than half will end up as 404 “Not Found” errors, without any sort of resolving redirect. Considering there are perhaps billions of URIs on the Web, we’re talking about a LOT of 404 errors happening constantly, wasting much time, energy, and resources. Things that we should be conserving.
Over time, it seems the number of solid, non-changing URIs is trending toward zero. For example, the largest Internet players like Apple, Google, and Facebook tend to change their application and documentation URIs I think almost daily. Indeed, it’s becoming increasingly rare to find online resources that aren’t moved constantly or removed completely.
