Ruth E. Thaler-Carter: Better safe than sorry ...

Karen Hanssen: You can paste this right into your browser and pull up the site.

R. Suzanne Moreland: I believe we still need this to distinguish www addresses from non-www addresses.

Karen Powers: A and B depend on the audience's level of understanding, but I prefer B. C is only valid if the server is programmed correctly. For some sites, the www. must be used.

Yvonne Klein: This form appears as a hot link and encourages use.

Tom Kreitzberg: This version (A) is Netscape-friendly. I use Netscape.

Jennifer German: Dropping all the http, www, etc. makes it easier to get the message across except in cases in which there is a different prefix for the url (i.e. we have one which is www2.).

John David Lamb: I predict that within a short time C will become standard.

L. L. Thrasher: Assuming the URL is on a webpage, definitely include the http://www. so it's clickable. Otherwide, I don't think it's necessary. The problem with leaving out the www is that there are sites that require it. My bank is www.clackamasfcu.org.

John Russell: Including the http makes the address a legitimate URL which can be used by clicking on it in virtually every mail utility. The other forms are iffy in most.

Yocheved Golani: I find that this form clues in the reader that you trust them enough to navigate the Web. I prefer to empower my colleagues rather than condescend to them.

Lisa Karam Middleton: It is our style not to include http unless the protocol is not http. In that case, we would list the entire URL.

David Durgin: I would give the actual title of the site and put the URL inside angle brackets--that's our house style.

Christi: C is dangerous, because some sites don't start with www!!!!

Jodi Lipson: Some people believe everything is www. It's not.

Lori Seng: A. is too cumbersome and C. doesn't clearly identify that it is a Web address at first glance.

Charlotte Fox Luttrell: No need for http://. It's old hat. Still need www. as a prefix, especially now that writingthatworks.com could be a company name in itself.

Paul Mulligan: Not all browsers work the same.

Mark H. Bloom: I've just started using this format (C). I know -- it's a big leap for me, but in my field, I'd say 98% of the people I deal with understand this, and this format strips away all the unnecessary information to reveal the true heart of the matter. I like that.