Uniform Resource Locator (URL)

A Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is a string of text that is used to locate a resource on the Internet, such as a Web page, document, or image. There are various types of URLs, but the most widely used is a HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) URL, also known as a Web address. A simple HTTP URL has the following form: http://domain name of server/path

An example of an HTTP URL from the MySecureCyberspace Web site is the following: http://www.mysecurecyberspace.com/encyclopedia/index/voip.html

The domain name (www.mysecurecyberspace.com) gets translated into an IP address that corresponds to the computer, or Web server, that hosts the MySecureCyberspace Web site.

The path (/encyclopedia/index/voip.html) shows where the Web page is located on the Web server. In this case, the voip.html page, which describes Voice over IP technology, is under the index directory, which is under the encyclopedia directory, which is at the Web server’s top directory level.

An HTTP URL can contain two additional pieces of information: a query that gives instructions to a database, program, or script residing on the server; and an anchor that takes you to a particular location on a Web page.

Other popular types of URL are https, ftp, mailto, ldap, file, news etc.