The longest hyphenated URL

.... what is the record?

[austtr]

I saw one today that measured 9 words.

Probably one of our lurkers.

[chris_f]

I remember reading about on in a magazine. I think it was about 250 characters long.

Chris

[JasonIR]

URLs can be 250 characters long?

[jeremy goodrich]

From the W3.org the http 1.1 spec [w3.org] you see that there is no set limit on a uri.

Section 3.2.1 General Syntax

The HTTP protocol does not place any a priori limit on the length of a URI. Servers MUST be able to handle the URI of any resource they serve, and SHOULD be able to handle URIs of unbounded length if they provide GET-based forms that could generate such URIs. A server SHOULD return 414 (Request-URI Too Long) status if a URI is longer than the server can handle (see section 10.4.15).

Note: Servers ought to be cautious about depending on URI lengths
above 255 bytes, because some older client or proxy
implementations might not properly support these lengths.

So the 255 byte thing is mostly for older browsers & proxies that may have a programatic limit.

[anallawalla]

I don't think the OP is asking for the length of a URI. He probably meant the length of a domain name. RFC890 (or somewhere in that neighbourhood) mentioned the length of 255, but I also see 253 in places, then 63 to overcome the limitations of some OSs.

In practice most registrars will only let you choose 63 characters not counting the dot and TLD. Technically you can have more.

- Ash