Slash and Backslash

[Dennis Marks]

It is my understanding that / is a slash and \ is a backslash. I
recently heard a radio ad that gave a site name as something like the
following: www.site.com backslash somename.

Is there a legitimate use for a backslash in a URL or was this just a
bad advertisment. I do not have the actual name and can't test it.

 

[Jukka K. Korpela]

It is my understanding that / is a slash and \ is a backslash.

That's correct. The most official names, in character code standards, are
"solidus" and "reverse solidus".

I recently heard a radio ad that gave a site name as something like the
following: www.site.com backslash somename.

They just got it wrong.

Is there a legitimate use for a backslash in a URL

No. The backslash character is not allowed at all in a URL, except as
URL encoded, and it must never be used instead of a slash.

A treatise on backslash in WWW authoring:
http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/www/revsol.html

 

[Kim André Akerø]

It is my understanding that / is a slash and \ is a backslash. I
recently heard a radio ad that gave a site name as something like the
following: www.site.com backslash somename.

Is there a legitimate use for a backslash in a URL or was this just a
bad advertisment. I do not have the actual name and can't test it.

Personally, I'd wrap it up as a bad advertisement. The people who produced
the ad apparently didn't do their job properly.

Then again, URLs are generally pronounced (and even constructed) badly by
people who have little or no experience with the Internet. I've seen (and
twitched at) several movies and TV shows where people have referred to an
URL like this: "http:/www.something" (that's right, only one slash and no
TLD). Sometimes even without reference to the protocol part of the URL,
people manage to screw it up completely.

 

[Richard]

It is my understanding that / is a slash and \ is a backslash. I
recently heard a radio ad that gave a site name as something like the
following: www.site.com backslash somename.

Is there a legitimate use for a backslash in a URL or was this just a
bad advertisment. I do not have the actual name and can't test it.

http://msn.com
http:\\msn.com

As you can see, one is proper, the other is not.
http://msn.com\test

Now what happens when you click on that link?
"Page not found" most likely.

 

[Toby A Inkster]

It is my understanding that / is a slash

Correct. A.k.a solidus, virgule, diagonal, seperatrix, shilling or stroke.

and \ is a backslash.

Correct. A.k.a. reverse solidus.

I recently heard a radio ad that gave a site name as something like the
following: www.site.com backslash somename.

You shouldn't believe everything you hear on the radio.

 

[Hywel]

http://msn.com
http:\\msn.com

As you can see, one is proper, the other is not.

What? How can the OP "see" that from your plain text example?

http://msn.com\test

Now what happens when you click on that link?
"Page not found" most likely.

You talk some rubbish sometimes. IE and Mozilla both correct the error
automatically, though using backslashes is incorrect in this instance as
Jukka has said.