For extensive dynamic strings, to concentrate on important terms does mod_rewrite in htaccess file help, for ex. (simplified) to write:

galaxy.com/?item=search_engine&page=marketing

into

ex: galaxy.com/search_engine/marketing

Yes. IMO, humans prefer to see legible easily identifiable url's.

SE's too prefer clean url's as multiple parameters can act as a dissuader to indexing.

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/mod_rewrite-rewriterule-generator.shtml

The above link has a tool that enables you to have a little play with the concept. (Apache Specific)

Its not perfect and there may be occassions when more tightly defined regex's are best suited, but it'll write your htaccess file and show you the way to go.

These links may help too

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/mod/mod_rewrite.html apache

http://www.isapirewrite.com/ commercial ISS product for windows based systems