Regardless of the content, what caught my attention was the way the reader is invited to join the online conversation. You could find, instead of incomprehensible links such as http://forum.spiegel.de/showthread.php?t=4813, a simple, clear and effective www.macht-das-internet-doof.de: just a redirect to the forum thread, good looking in print, easy to remember and probably search engine friendly too.

Nonetheless, many magazines and newspapers are a million light years away from this approach. The link – when present – spans multiple lines and often, it’s hard to decipher or even wrong. And, of course, it starts with http://. I think I’m very keen on these details because I worked 6 years for a publishing company, anyway, I’m not alone. Adam Darowski in his blog explains why a URL has to be considered an integral part of the user interface.

It’s not possible yet to click on a sheet of paper, so the URL has to be easy to type and to remember. There should be a reason why someone invented the DNS to translate 123.123.123.123 to www.site.tld