Re: "Navigate" or "explore"?

["Ridder, Fred" <Fred -dot- Ridder -at- DIALOGIC -dot- COM>]

On Tue, 25 May 1999 Linda Sims wrote:

>I think that Microsoft is not so subtly trying to reinforce use of Internet
>Explorer over Navigator by its choice of words. Why not chuck both words
and
>use "Go to http:/www.genericsite.domain/whatever" and "Open the
>'http:/www.genericsite.domain/whatever ' link" instead?

I have no problem with the first usage you propose, but the second
one is another matter. To me, "opening" isn't an action that I intuitively
associate with a "link". "Follow the link" or "use the link" make sense,
and I could probably live with "open the URL" , although I suspect a
lot of general readers might have problems with the initialism (yes,
I'm in the camp that pronounces it as "you-are-ell" rather than as an
acronym--I guess I've known too many people named Earl). But the
phrase "open a link" makes me think of right-clicking an entry in
my browser's bookmarks/favorites list to edit its properties.

And what do you propose for the common situation where it is not
possible to provide a specific URL? For example, how would you
tell someone to go to the H-P software download website and
navigate/explore/browse to the page that is appropriate for their
printer model, computer platform, and OS? I think there is a
legitimate need for a verb that is specific to the web browsing
environment because there's no way to identify a specific target
in every case.

Fred Ridder
Dialogic Corp.
Parsippany, NJ


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