Lesson plan

URI normalization

URI normalization is the process by which URIs are modified and standardized in a consistent manner. The goal of the normalization process is to transform a URI into a normalized URI so it is possible to determine if two syntactically different URIs may be equivalent. Search engines employ URI normalization to correctly rank pages that may be found with multiple URIs, and to reduce indexing of duplicate pages. Web crawlers perform URI normalization to avoid crawling the same resource more than once. Web browsers may perform normalization to determine if a link has been visited or to determine if a page has been cached. Web servers may also perform normalization for many reasons (i.e. to be able to more easily intercept security risks coming from client requests, to use only one absolute file name for each resource stored in their caches, named in log files, etc.).

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Article summary

URI normalization is the process by which URIs are modified and standardized in a consistent manner. The goal of the normalization process is to transform a URI into a normalized URI so it is possible to determine if two syntactically different URIs may be equivalent. Search engines employ URI normalization to correctly rank pages that may be found with multiple URIs, and to reduce indexing of duplicate pages. Web crawlers perform URI normalization to avoid crawling the same resource more than once. Web browsers may perform normalization to determine if a link has been visited or to determine if a page has been cached. Web servers may also perform normalization for many reasons (i.e. to be able to more easily intercept security risks coming from client requests, to use only one absolute file name for each resource stored in their caches, named in log files, etc.).

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Discussion questions

  1. Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
  2. Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
  3. If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?

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Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.