Httpwww.google.com, httpgroups.yahoo.com, Invalid URL, Why?

So you have heard of Google or Yahoo, fired up the trusty Internet Explorer and typed one of the following phrase's in the search bar, httpwww.google.com, httpgroups.yahoo.com, httpyahoo.com, or perhaps wwwgmail.com, hit search, "--" Eh, Nothing, WHY? You are not alone, over 3,000,000 people a year type in httpwww.google.com, over 2,000,000 type in httpgroups.yahoo.com, and 2,600,000 enter wwwgmail.com, all with the same result, Nix. The problem is two-fold, the solution is easy. Let us have a look at one phrase in particular and you can apply the same solution to the others. When you typed in httpwww.google.com, you will probably have entered this into a white text box somewhere in the top third part of your browser which may by default have an AOL or MSN webpage showing. This is actually a search text box where you need to type in what you are searching for as a word or phrase. Using httpwww.google.com as an example, if you had typed in just Google you would have found the search engine coming back with a myriad of pages that have the term Google on their pages and then you could have selected what interests you. The search text box is where you type in, as an example, a phrase like "acne and acupuncture". Hit the search button and bingo, several relevant sites will be shown. Httpwww.google.com is not a search term but an internet address. If you have a correct address and want to go to that site, you need to enter it in the address bar which is normally just under the top toolbar of your browser. You will see that most address bars have a go button on the right as opposed to a search button as in the search box described before. The last part of the solution is in the spelling of httpwww.google.com. Httpwww.google.com should in fact be written as follows, http://www.google.com/ . You were mighty close, but computers are wickedly logical and a missing forward slash often equals despair. In conclusion; 1- Search phrases go in the search text box, 2- Addresses go in the top address bar, 3- Addresses need to be spelt correctly. Httpwww.google.com corrected is http://www.google.com/, Httpgroups.yahoo.com corrected is http://groups.yahoo.com/, Httpyahoo.com corrected is http://www.yahoo.com/, Wwwgmail.com corrected is http://www.gmail.com/. Happy surfing!