What's this new `#!` in URL convention?

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What's the shebang/hashbang (#!) in Facebook and new Twitter URLs for?

I noticed that some popular sites started switching to a new URL (convention?), in which a URI segment is no longer prefixed by / but rather by #!/.

For example, if you type into Twitter http://twitter.com/stackoverflow, it will immediately redirect to http://twitter.com/#!/stackoverflow.

Had I seen this on Twitter only, I wouldn't have thought twice about this, but now I am seeing this in other sites.

Is this a new convention for URL redirection? Where can I learn more about this?

I'm 100% positive I've seen this before somewhere... – user541686 May 30 '11 at 20:32 — user541686, May 30 '11 at 20:32
Search google for hashbang. The opinions on this are split. – Oded May 30 '11 at 20:32 — Oded, May 30 '11 at 20:32

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:48

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It was started by Google ( http://code.google.com/web/ajaxcrawling/ )

If you're running an AJAX application with content that you'd like to appear in search results, we have a new process that, when implemented, can help Google (and potentially other search engines) crawl and index your content. Historically, AJAX applications have been difficult for search engines to process because AJAX content is produced dynamically by the browser and thus not visible to crawlers. While there are existing methods for dealing with this problem, they involve regular manual maintenance to keep the content up-to-date.

Look at this answer here:

What's the shebang/hashbang (#!) in Facebook and new Twitter URLs for?

The opinion on using this is split - Gawker had major issues after taking this up : http://www.webmonkey.com/2011/02/gawker-learns-the-hard-way-why-hash-bang-urls-are-evil/

edited May 23 '17 at 11:48

Community

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answered May 30 '11 at 20:33

manojlds

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Oh Wow, I searched SO for this before posting but had no idea it's called hashbang. Thanks! – uTubeFan May 30 '11 at 20:35
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@uTubeFan hashbang / shebang is very popular in scripting – manojlds May 30 '11 at 20:36
@manojlds Yes, I've seen this in sh/ksh/bash scripts but I didn't make the connection to URLs. +1 again. :) Will accept in 8 minutes. – uTubeFan May 30 '11 at 20:37
@manojlds @uTubeFan: It's more often called a shebang in scripting terms (short form of "sharp bang"). I have no idea why "hashbang" caught on among web devs but not "shebang" - probably because web developers weren't shell scripters. – BoltClock May 30 '11 at 23:15
@manojlds @uTubeFan: Plus it is true that it only popped up in URLs *very* recently - on the other hand it's been indicative to shells for **years**. – BoltClock May 30 '11 at 23:27
@BoltClock - HaSH Bang is also a reason for shebang – manojlds May 30 '11 at 23:30
@BoltClock - you didn't have to mention the second point! – manojlds May 30 '11 at 23:30

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered May 30 '11 at 20:34

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It's how Google should index the page when dealing with AJAX

answered May 30 '11 at 20:34

Alan

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What's this new `#!` in URL convention?

2 Answers2