title: Why do some websites add "Slugs" to the end of URLs?
body: <p>Many websites, including this one, add what are apparently called <em>slugs</em> - descriptive but as far as I can tell useless bits of text - to the end of URLs.</p>
  
  <p>For example, the URL the site gives for this question is:</p>
  
  <p><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/47427/why-do-some-websites-add-slugs-to-the-end-of-urls"><code>https://stackoverflow.com/questions/47427/why-do-some-websites-add-slugs-to-the-end-of-urls</code></a></p>
  
  <p>But the following URL works just as well:</p>
  
  <p><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/47427/"><code>https://stackoverflow.com/questions/47427/</code></a></p>
  
  <p>Is the point of this text just to somehow make the URL more user friendly or are there some other benefits? </p>