This story is pretty short: the Sony page is an Enterprise Java (TM) shopping cart, not a brochureware page in a CMS.<p>Apple also is a heavy user of Enterprise Java. Try finding pages where they can take input.<p>That said, yeah, given the choice I would a) devote engineering resources to getting human-readable URLs (SEO and UX benefits for reasonably little work) and b) prefer frameworks which make that the default because they are likely clueful in other ways, too.
I'd say that the URL for Apple iPod is:<p><pre><code> http://google.com/search?q=apple%20ipod
</code></pre>
and for Sony Walkman:<p><pre><code> http://google.com/search?q=sony20walkman
</code></pre>
Really, I see people going to their GMail by typing "gmail" in Google. And ask 100 strangers on the street how important the tidyness of the text in their browser's address bar is to them.
Sony's mixing the store with the product information page, resulting in such an ugly URL. Regarding stores, however, Apple isn't entirely innocent either—what about URLs like this[1]?<p>Sony UK's is just a product information page, and it has a much cleaner URL[2] (albeit not as clean as Apple's).<p>[1] <a href="http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_ipod/family/ipod_touch?aid=AIC-WWW-NAUS-K2-BUYNOW-IPODTOUCH-INDEX&cp=BUYNOW-IPODTOUCH-INDEX" rel="nofollow">http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_ipod/family/ipod_...</a><p>[2] <a href="http://www.sony.co.uk/hub/walkman" rel="nofollow">http://www.sony.co.uk/hub/walkman</a>
I get the point he's trying to make, but you can still type in <a href="http://sony.com/walkman" rel="nofollow">http://sony.com/walkman</a> and it takes you to the correct page.
It's ironic that a post about URL tidiness would be here: <a href="http://reillybrennan.com/post/7686471401/even-a-url-tells-a-story" rel="nofollow">http://reillybrennan.com/post/7686471401/even-a-url-tells-a-...</a>
I like the point of this post, but I wish the author would have elaborated more. Sanitary URLs are great because they play on human emotions. Looking at the simple, clean Apple URL, it does two things: it provides an easy to remember route to their specific product, and two, it feels <i>clean</i>. In contrast, the Sony URL feels dirty and disorganized, lacking a real focus and seemingly, makes the Walkmen feel like just another electronic whatchamacalit. Although it seems purely cosmetic, there's a subconscious thing going on. Yes it helps developers/consumers but even more importantly, it makes your brand look focused. There should be more writing on the psych aspects of web development. I feel like there's a lot to be said.
The interesting thing though is that Jobs was always very inspired by Sony and "tidyness".<p>I really do wonder if Apple can continue without Jobs or whether it will decay into management kingdoms like Sony and other large organizations.
The story here is, 'hide complexity'? Or perhaps 'Focus on the details of user experience'?<p>I love the reference to "all of this business at the top". Perhaps there's a design principle in there. If a user is ever referring to "all this business..." then you've gone off track.