Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2016 December 23

= December 23 =

CNN domain redirect
Why exactly CNN.com redirects to edition.cnn.com? Is there www.cnn.com at all? This says "It probably redirects in order to acquire information about the edition from the visitor and populate the most relevant content according to their edition". CNN doesn't explain this, so I thought a relevant note in the infobox would be nice, but couldn't find a reliable source for it. Thanks. Brandmeistertalk  19:35, 23 December 2016 (UTC)
 * For me, cnn.com redirects to www.cnn.com, not edition.cnn.com. Going to the latter directly gives me a page with a different title and different articles on it. The title for www.cnn.com is "CNN - Breaking News, Latest News and Videos" while edition.cnn.com has "CNN - Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News" I think edition.cnn.com is the US version. Isa (talk) 05:29, 24 December 2016 (UTC)
 * Where are you Isa? I'm getting edition.cnn.com here in the UK, so it's not that simple. Rojomoke (talk) 06:23, 24 December 2016 (UTC)
 * Yes, both cnn.com and www.cnn.com are redirected to edition.cnn.com for me in the UK. My guess is that the website is programmed to deliver American content (us.cnn.com) for American IPs, and the international edition to the rest of the world, but perhaps it makes some errors in identifying IP addresses, or perhaps some Americans use a proxy elsewhere?  There are only minor differences, and you can set your preference at the top right, or opt for content in Spanish or Arabic. I've added a sentence to the article, but need a citation for our original research on the server behaviour.  Can anyone find one?    D b f i r s   11:55, 24 December 2016 (UTC)
 * As a side note, is there a way to get directly to www.cnn.com for those who are redirected to edition.cnn.com? Brandmeistertalk  12:53, 24 December 2016 (UTC)
 * I think the former cnn.com has been renamed us.cnn.com.   D b f i r s   12:58, 24 December 2016 (UTC)
 * ... but I was wrong — there seem to be two ways to reach the American edition, but the www.cnn.com is not available from IP addresses in the UK. How strange!  Their server is obviously making some decisions based on IP addresses.    D b f i r s   18:22, 24 December 2016 (UTC)

I was on a Canadian IP when I did my original test. I've done other tests and I got edition in the UK, Germany, Norway, Australia, Mexico and Brazil, but www in Canada and the US. It seems my original guess was wrong and that www is Canada/US and edition is for the rest.

In any case, on the right side of the header is a dropdown where you can select between the "International" (goes to edition.cnn.com) or "U.S. Edition" (goes to us.cnn.com). The content is the same for us and www, so they seem to be aliases. As for why cnn.com redirects to www instead of us if you're in North America, I'm not sure. Maybe they assume Canadians want US content but would be offended by seeing us in the URL. Isa (talk) 17:50, 24 December 2016 (UTC)