Cool URI

A Cool URI (from W3C advice popularised by Tim Berners-Lee's "Cool URIs don't change") is a web address designed to remain stable so bookmarks and citations keep working. Practices include avoiding transient session IDs in public links, planning redirects when sites reorganise, and treating URLs as part of the public record.

Relation to permanence

Cool URIs are a design-time defence against Link rot; they pair with server-side redirects and archived copies when change is unavoidable.

See also

• Link rot
• Persistent identifier
• Permanence

Sources

• W3C Style Guide note "Cool URIs don't change".
• Web-architecture textbooks.