How important is a URL in providing insight into a story or page? Often you can look at a URL and quickly get an idea of what you're about to get, i.e. if I see, www.usatoday.com/sports/nfl/scores/ I know I am probably going to see the scores of NFL games. But what happens when the URL has incorrect information?

In this evening's USAToday there is an article about NBC executice Dick Ebersol surviving a plane crash.

As I waited for this page to load, I quickly looked at the URL:

My first thoughts were... I wonder how Gulfstream handles things like this. Does the crash of one of their planes impact sales? Will a NetJet client be less willing to fly on a Gulfstream? (Think about the post Payne Stewart crash issues that Lear had)

Then I read, the article. The plane was not a Gulfstream, it was a CL-601 Challenger (photos of aircraft), made by Bombardier and owned by Jet Alliance. (more photos of the same type of aircraft)

Obviously I had made some incorrect assumptions based upon the URL. This is a very similar situation to when a another editor writes the headline for a story. In this case, the content manager probably created the URL without reading the entire story. Perhaps the content manager thinks that all private planes are Gulfstreams?

So how much harm is done? I read the whole story, so I realized the error, but how many people don't read the entire article? Of course how many people who did not read the full article are also looking to purchase a Gulfstream in the near future?

Update: I e-mailed USAToday and received a response that they will not use 'gulfstream' in today's URL. They also pointed out that my original post listed Roone Arledge as being involved in the accident, not Dick Ebersol. I have corrected this.