Why would Apple.com and other sites have some pages end with .html and have clean links for others. Usability advantages?

Question

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone knew the thinking behind there decision to do this:

Alot of pages on Apple.com have clean links such as:

http://www.apple.com/wifi/

however some of there pages end with .html

http://www.apple.com/airportexpress/features/airtunes.html

I find it unlikely that these pages are static html pages so....

Why would Apple (and other sites) do with, what are the usability advantages?

Answer 1

I guess, it's a hint to the end user.
Under wifi, I expect more options, contents and sub-options. It's a general starting page for wifi topic.
Under airtunes.html, I expect a list of airtunes. This is more focused.
IMHO.

Answer 2

It means they don't understand how the web works.

Putting specific technologies into the URI is one of the most heinous crimes against the web that one could possibly commit. It means that it is pretty much guaranteed that the URI is not, in fact, a URI.

Answer 3

After a some thought, the way I see it is the '.html' signify to the user that there is no more pages down that branch of the site. Anything that ends with '/' has a menu on it and the user can go a little deeper.