Receptional_Andy - 2:52 pm on May 18, 2008 (gmt 0)

CNN are probably not a good example, since their URLs are neither user-friendly, legible or pretty. They use an odd mix of SHOUTING, Proper Case, lower case and numbers and technical indetifiers. And they break if you change letter casing. Frankly, I think this is just what their CMS has left them with, rather than it being an actual choice.

And besides, CNN in Pascal Case is Cnn ;)

I accept that there is an arguable difference for a brand name in a hostname and a filename itself.

Ever print out a topic

We're a bit off topic now I guess, but for print, you are forced to write out full URLs since otherwise users could never navigate back to the source of the article. IMO if it's a webpage, URLs should not generally be used as the text for a link. They usually appear because better link text has not been written, or as an aid to usability, in addition to (but not instead of) a usefully-written link.