Is there a difference to these two URL link styles?

Is there any bennefit when submitting your website to directories, other sites, etc. so include a "/" after your URL?

For example... Is there a difference between the two of these entires:

http://www.url.com

http://www.url.com/


??

using the link checker from the w3c it says that

http://www.url.com

redirects to

http://www.url.com/

So for SEO purposes it is probably better to include the trailing slash

wouldnt a bot just follow the link anyway?

i mean, take this forum for instance...
http://ozzu.com/viewforum.php?f=1
and
http://ozzu.com/forum1.html
...go to the same place.

however, whilst forum1.html doesnt actually exist, it resolves to http://ozzu.com/viewforum.php?f=1 ... and this is one of the highest PR forums I have seen.

I prosume that an extra '/' is added to url.com server side, just like the forum1.html.

Nope, the / is added by telling the BROWSER that "nope you don't want this page, you want the other one.", which adds an extras stage onto finding the page for an SE. This is handled client side. Therefore the url without the trailing slash DOES NOT EXIST as far as the client is concerned.

The forum1.html is a dummy url and doesn't really exist, but to the client that forum1.html is a real page.

The bot would just follow the link, but the extra step of the redirect would not do you any favours SEO wise. It's best to stick with the trailing slash version.

Bear in mind people try to stop PR leak by using redirects, so there is probably a detrimental effect to using such a system.

I think is a domain name:

ozzu.com

I think this is a website address:

http://www.ozzu.com

And I know this is an URL:

http://www.ozzu.com/

Its no big deal though I would have the /. For SEO it makes no deference.

I have gotten into the habit of using the trailing slash, but it dosnt make the slightest difference.