Orkut's URL Writing Method

Question

I have a doubt about orkut's new URL Writing method.

Earlier the home page was like

http://www.orkut.com/Home.aspx

Now its changed to

http://www.orkut.co.in/Main#Home.aspx

Whats the significance of "#" ? Why is it there and why have they used it?

Is not "#" used to navigate to a particular section of Page using name="blah" in the anchor tag?

Answer 1

They're probably using it in their Javascript. Often ajax heavy pages use the # so that bookmarks and browser back buttons still work.

Answer 2

The URL fragment (#name) was historically used for in-page anchors, so that you could mark a section and have the page scroll just the right content into view when linking to it.

Since the URL fragment can also be seen by JavaScript code, though, many hacks have become popular that allow you to use the same page for multiple purposes. It's probably more useful for browser history than making any sort of presentation decisions, but both techniques are common.