What makes a “friendly URL”?

Question

I\'ve read a great deal of discussion recently (both on this site and elsewhere) about \"friendly URLs\" but I\'m not sure what exactly makes a URL \"friendly\" and why we r

Answer 1

The 2nd URL looks more user friendly, whereas the first looks search-engine friendly.

Search engines give a higher relevance to words that appear in the URL. The domain name gets the highest (because it can't change), the rest of the URL gets a high priority because the length is limited, and then the body of the document is analysed.

My answer is quite subjective, because it depends on whether you are being human friendly (easy to type manually, or read to a friend) or whether you are being search engine friendly (boosting your ranking.)