Using search engines this way is also called "navigational search" and it's still how most of the world navigates the web (even sites they know well and use daily!)
It's basically using search as an additional name resolution layer on top of DNS. Because search is more human-convenient, with a layer of semantic processing free from the rigid technical constraints of DNS names. Which is all great, a useful abstraction, until the semantic layer guesses wrong on what the user actually wanted and the abstraction leaks.
While I'm on my phone it's much easier to just open the browser, type "h" in the search box, auto-complete kicks in, I press the "hacker news" suggestion and then click on the first result in the SERPS which gets me in here. Otherwise I would have to start typing "hn..." something in the browser bar, remember that's not how HN's URL actually looks like, curse and revert to using Google.
however, DNS also has an issue for this particular audience. A simple typo could land you on a completely different site which I think is why navigational searching is more useful for those in a rush or those that can't type. I even find my self doing this time. If I ever need to get to thesaurus.com, I usually just type t, h, e, s and then mash the letters a, u, and r a few times and then end it with an s. it isn't that it is hard to spell, but I just find it easier and Google seems to almost always get what I am trying to type so quickly that spelling it correctly wouldn't really make it much faster
