Re: FYI: ITU standard addresses presentation of e-mail addresses

 > I'd be interested in knowing what E.123 has to say about
 > 'web site URLs'. Is it about the same level of detail as
 > on email addresses?

Yes, it is.  Actually, 'web site URL' was my phrase, the recomendaton
used the phrase 'Web address'.

They mandate that the 'Web address' be writted without the 'http://'
prefix.  And that's all they say on the matter. 

Beyond that, nothing of relevence to the current discussion.
Tradionally the ITU has suggested (but not requiured) strings such as
'Tel' as suitable for identifying a telephone number; they now suggest
(but don't require) the strings 'E-mail' and 'Web' for e-mail
addresses and 'Web addresses' respectively. They also suggest that if
a web address is printed, it should be positioned near the e-mail
address.

 > And why do they have to say anything about 'web site URLs'?
 > For email addresses, the fact that they say 'use SMTP style'
 > is important in the sense that there have been other
 > (rather unwieldy) formats, promoted by 'formal' standards
 > bodies, in the case of URLs, I'm not aware of any
 > competing standards.

I wouldn't like to say.  If by other formal standards you mean X.400,
I don't think that's the issue.  I think it's just a rather minimal
attempt to update the notion of what one should print on a business
card or letterhead.  It feels more like a placeholder than anything
else, and presumably future editions of E.123 might say something more
concrete, hopefully with IETF input...

	-roy