Why does my search for shortened web addresses always fail?

Q Whenever I try to access one of the www.snipca.com website addresses that are published throughout Computeractive magazine, such as www.snipca.com/X2888, I get a message that it cannot be found – the browser tells me that it “did not match any documents”. Could you tell me why this is?
Tim Hurford

A Yes – you are making the common mistake of executing a Google search for the web address, rather than typing it into the browser’s Address or Location bar. We can be certain of this because of the ‘did not match any documents’ message – those are the words Google uses to report that it has failed to find any internet pages containing the search term.

One reason many people make this error is because they have installed the Google Toolbar, which places a small Google search bar alongside the browser’s Address or Location bar.

People tend to search much more regularly than typing in website URLs, so when the time comes it may feel natural to tap the web address into the same box as search terms are typed.

But, as you’ve found, doing so will result in Google saying that it cannot find any matching documents – and that’s because the documents don’t themselves contain the URL.

The answer is to ensure that you are typing the web address into the correct box, usually at the top left-hand side of the browser window. Currently, the only exception to this is the Google Chrome web browser, which combines the search and Address/Location bar to eliminate hiccups like this.