is %20 in the URL ever a problem?

[Craig_F]

working with a site that has %20 in the URLs in place of spaces and I just want to make sure that I won't run into any headaches with that.

thanks!

[encyclo]

%20 is just an encoded space in the file name. It's certainly ugly, not particularly user-friendly, it looks desperately amateurish (to somewone knowledgeable), but is technically perfectly acceptable.

Personally, I would consider using mod_rewrite and replacing the space with a hyphen, but I don't think you will have too many difficulties if you want to stick with the old filenames.

[Lord Majestic]

but is technically perfectly acceptable.

Problem is that technically it not always acceptable with some commongly used software treating %20 as %20, not space (they dont do URL decoding). Say on windows referring to that file as a parameter in command line tools would require usage of quotes.

Its best to avoid spaces alltogether as well as trying to use same (lower) cased file/dir names everywhere. If you really want to separate words then use underscore or stroke.

[edited by: Lord_Majestic at 3:55 pm (utc) on Aug. 18, 2004]

[SEOMike]

I agree with enclyco. It's perfectly acceptable, and will get listed in the SEs, but looks terrible. To an amateur web user, it might look complicated, but to someone who knows the web, it's a deterrent.

[Craig_F]

thanks for the info on %20, very helpful. now one more...

anyone know how the SE's view "+" in an url? I was hoping they'd see it as a space, but don't know for sure.