do search engines recognize URL's which have spaces?

[alex2g9]

For example:

http://www.mysite.com?searchfor=hello

world.aspx

would that be okay? When I type that from web browser, it's okay, but when I used search engine simulator - it said bad link. I'm wondering if real engine spider can read such URL's or I should replace space with "%20" in URL string?

thanks for help,
Alex

 

[trollacious]

You need to "escape" whatever you put in the URL, and don't count on the browser to do it for you.

Lee

 

[ChrisHunt]

So that's "yes", if you have to use spaces in your file names, use %20 in your URLs. Personally, I think its easier to not use spaces in the first place.

-- Chris Hunt
Webmaster & Tragedian
Extra Connections Ltd

 

[trollacious]

Using spaces and other punctuation characters, or mixed upper and lower case letters, are disasters waiting to happen. Many web hosting services are running operating systems that are case sensitive, so a capital letter in a file name can result in the file not being found if it's not capitalized exactly the same way in the code that refers to it.

Lee

 

[alex2g9]

thanks guys, I'll do that.