In the last few days, listening to the radio, I’ve heard ads where the web address includes “forward slash” or “backslash.” Neither of these specifications is necessary and one of them is wrong.

Ok, that bugs me. All you need is “slash.”

A “slash” is:  /

A “forward slash” is:  /

A “backslash” is:  \

If you actually put backslashes in the web address it won’t work (unless, as with Google Chrome, it triggers a search function that corrects the address—I tried it with Chrome, Firefox and Safari).

The fancy generic name for the slash is “virgule.” But not when you are talking about a web address.

There’s a looong fascinating article on Wikipedia about the “slash.” Learn things like: A slash denotes a spare, knocking down all ten pins in two throws, when scoring ten-pin bowling, and duckpin bowling.

and then you can go on to…

Feynman slash notation