Folder names and Bandwidth

how much bandwidth does folder name characters use up

[Zubman]

I'm wondering if there are any tools available to calculate how much bandwidth, or the KB involved in changing folder names.

I am trying to balance out folder names for SE themes against the bandwidth involved.

I know yahoo changed their images directory from images to i but also figure that chaning my images directory to use a keyword would be usefull.

I don't think that 10 characters per folder would weigh that heavily.

How can I calculate the KB involved in the characters in my html?

[oilman]

I wouldn't spend too much time worrying about the length of your url. Right now even having the keyword in your domain name is barely useful and the further down the folder list you run the less relevant it becomes. You can call your folders anything you like and the folder names can be pretty much as long as you want. It won't really make any difference to how fast your page loads.

I prefer to call my image folder 'images' - the webmasters at Yahoo probably prefer to call their image folder 'i'. It's a preference and organization thing - nothing more nothing less.

[brotherhood of LAN]

Id agree with oilman, the URL is X amount of characters, and this is a fraction of overall characters used in a site, almost next to nothing

The actual creation of a folder takes 512 bytes, I would assume 1 more byte for each character, so in regards to bandwidth, its not really an issue (unless you use a ridiculous amount of folders)

>Organisational

As your site gets bigger itll be harder to get your head round. Im beginning to have probs tracking particular info on my site, alias, directories named for human use are really why folders can be called what they want by you

Look at the "you call this an algo" thread, according to one spectrum of the argument, you changing your URL to promote keywords would be considered spam ;) If its for bandwidth reasons i guess yer ok :)

[Zubman]

I agree totally about the *amount* of bandwidth and that it's negligible.

My employer on the other hand seems to think that a few extra characters is going to put our company under due to the expense of extra bandwidth.

I'm looking for two things really, validation of my assumption that it is not to worry about, and the idea that SE's are going to be looking for themes in websites shortly if not currently.

[oilman]

>>validation of my assumption that it is not to worry about

you got it. The official oilman proclamation: "The number of characters in your url is not a bandwidth concern. However if your bandwidth allowance is so low that you are looking at these kind of things it's time for a new host."

Seriously - these days there are so many hosting options out there - you should be able to find anything to fit your needs for a reasonable price.

[oilman]

oh yeah - themes. Yes themes are very valid. Teoma is the ground breaker in this arena and there's always the arguement that a properly themed site will do well everywhere, not just in the the 'theme engines'.

[brotherhood of LAN]

>Themes

Some of my folders are numbered, I tend not to stuff the with keywords. I think the page file name is suffice on this knife edge world :)

Granted, in the big wide scheme of things, there are an array of questions when it comes to the naming of files and folders, and reassurrance is a good thing :)