[cryptos]

It would be good if more care would be taken when designing URL schemes. It is not accidental that URL shorteners are used everywhere.

Look for example at this link:

    https://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Software-Architecture-Engineering-Approach-ebook/dp/B0849MPK73/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=software+architecture&qid=1594966348&sr=8-1

Maybe each part has a solid reason to exist, but the result is a monster.

I would prefer something like this:

    https://amazon.com/dp/B0849MPK73

And guess what, the above short link actually works! But Amazon didn't use this kind of links as a standard.

[rapnie]

The second link is completely undescriptive and just like with bit.ly and other shorteners you don't know where you end up after clicking it.

[cryptos]

Fair point. A compromise could a somewhat shorter version of the original link:

    https://amazon.com/Fundamentals-Software-Architecture/dp/B0849MPK73/

This includes the main title of the book + ID (this variant also works).

[rapnie]

There is also an argument for your original version with just the ID regarding unchanging URL's.

The Amazon URL that includes the title should be fairly stable, but if you look at e.g. a Discourse forum URL you see it contains the topic title, which can change at any time and then the URL changes with it. The old URL still works, because Discourse redirects, but this can't be taken for granted.

So Discourse then has these URL's referring to the same topic:

    - https://forum.example.com/t/my-title/12345
    - https://forum.example.com/t/my-new-title/12345
    - https://forum.example.com/t/12345

And using the last version may be best to use when linking to the topic from somewhere else.

[lukeramsden]

> https://amazon.com/Fundamentals-Software-Architecture/dp/B08...

But... this link works. Everything after /B0849MPK73/ is because you reached that product page through search, and it stores the search term in the URL. You can remove it and the site works just fine.