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The obvious typo stackxhange.com results in a browser error. Isn't it a simple feature that it should return the obvious "Did you mean stackexhange.com ?

Or are there good reasons why not?

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2 Answers 2

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You are searching For a domain i.e .com in this case if there is domain you get a result else you get a error. Just Try Normal stackxhange without .com you will get what you expected.

When you search for a domain.

1-You enter a URL into the browser

2-The browser looks up the IP address for the domain name

The first step in the navigation is to figure out the IP address for the visited domain. The DNS lookup proceeds as follows: Browser cache – The browser caches DNS records for some time. Interestingly, the OS does not tell the browser the time-to-live for each DNS record, and so the browser caches them for a fixed duration (varies between browsers, 2 – 30 minutes). OS cache – If the browser cache does not contain the desired record, the browser makes a system call (gethostbyname in Windows). The OS has its own cache. Router cache – The request continues on to your router, which typically has its own DNS cache. ISP DNS cache – The next place checked is the cache ISP’s DNS server. With a cache, naturally. Recursive search – Your ISP’s DNS server begins a recursive search, from the root nameserver, through the .com top-level nameserver, to Facebook’s nameserver. Normally, the DNS server will have names of the .com nameservers in cache, and so a hit to the root nameserver will not be necessary.

3-The browser sends a HTTP request to the web server

The GET request names the URL to fetch: “http://facebook.com/”. The browser identifies itself (User-Agent header), and states what types of responses it will accept (Accept and Accept-Encoding headers). The Connection header asks the server to keep the TCP connection open for further requests. The request also contains the cookies that the browser has for this domain. As you probably already know, cookies are key-value pairs that track the state of a web site in between different page requests. And so the cookies store the name of the logged-in user, a secret number that was assigned to the user by the server, some of user’s settings, etc. The cookies will be stored in a text file on the client, and sent to the server with every request.

4-The facebook server responds with a permanent redirect

5-The browser follows the redirect

6- The server ‘handles’ the request

7-The server sends back a HTML response

8-The browser begins rendering the HTML

9-The browser sends requests for objects embedded in HTML

10- The browser sends further asynchronous (AJAX) requests

Credits:http://igoro.com/archive/what-really-happens-when-you-navigate-to-a-url/

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    Good answer. With that said: I hate that Google feature. On almost all occasions, I want to search for (w.l.o.g.) stackxhange, yet Google insists on throwing in that pointless extra step where it searches for something I am not looking for that it thinks is a "better" search term. Dec 22, 2016 at 12:44
  • I think AI has to be developed right.where it auto interprets and takes you to what you need based on your search history or something ??
    – Harshith
    Dec 22, 2016 at 12:45
  • I'd prefer if it simply took me to the results for what I asked it to search for. Dec 22, 2016 at 13:01
  • you mean without correcting your spelling mistake you want google to take you to results. But there are some cases i actually don't know spelling of some word and i just something close to whatever i thought then google would suggest me the correct one , There are so many users who use google like dictionary. This is actually very helpful for users.
    – Harshith
    Dec 22, 2016 at 13:04
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    Sometimes, Google just asks "Did you mean ...?" to suggest a possibly better spelling, without forcibly redirecting the user. That is much less disruptive than automatically assuming the user got it wrong, while still being fully sufficient for the use case of using Google like a dictionary. Dec 22, 2016 at 13:28
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Chrome, at least, asks you: Did you mean http://stackexchange.com/? It just doesn't redirect you to Google Search.


The address bar in a browser has two different functionalities:

  1. Access an specific address
  2. Search engine: search for a term and receive recommended addresses

The final goal is going to an address.

When accessing an specific address the browser doesn't interfere with what you enter. It just takes you there. And if there is nothing it will give you the closest match, if there is one.

When searching for a query the search engine recommends you addresses that relate to it, and correct you if they think you introduced the query wrong. If you search stackxhange.com in Google Search you will see how it corrects the spelling.


Let me give an example of using a GPS navigator. If you use Google Maps to go somewhere you can:

  1. Enter an specific address: the app will simply show you the place, it will not try to evaluate what are you looking for there. If there is not an address associated it will tell you it was not found and give the closest match, if there is one.

  2. Look for restaurants around an address: the app will show you addresses based on a term, query or address. and then you will decide which is your final address.

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  • If I typed stackxhange.com, why make it awfully complicated to search for that and not something else (stack exchange in this case)? This seems like an example of the same thing that O. R. Mapper discusses in the comments to Harshith's answer.
    – user
    Dec 22, 2016 at 14:29
  • Because the browser and the search engine are different things. The browser looks for an address and if not found gives an answer as the browser, not as the search engine. It doesn't change your query and redirect you to what it might be the correct one (as I think O. R. Mapper means in that comment), it only suggests it.
    – Alvaro
    Dec 22, 2016 at 14:35
  • If I typed stackxhange.com then I'd want a proposal to search for stackxhange.com or at least stackxhange, not stack exchange which might not be what I want to look for at all.
    – user
    Dec 22, 2016 at 14:37

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