Uniform Resource Locator (URL)

Details - Frequently Asked Questions - Anecdotes - Links to other sites

Definition
A Uniform Resource Locator is the mechanism for addressing Web pages and other files on the Internet. Uniform Resource Locator is invariably abbreviated to URL.
Discussion
Most Internet users know the URL as the means of specifying Web addresses. For example the URL for the home page for this glossary is "http://www.hyperglossary.co.uk/index.htm".  This is what you type into the address field in the Browser to view the glossary home page. This is how the URL is made up:
If you miss off "http://" most browsers will add it for you. The file name field will not always be present in a URL. For example if you used "www.hyperglossary.co.uk" it would take you to the home page for the HyperGlossary Web site. Web sites are usually set up with a default page if you do not specify a directory or file name. If you specify the full URL above it will load the page "index.htm" from the www.hyperglossary.co.uk Web site.  On UNIX Web servers this is usually index.htm or index.html and on NT servers it is usually default.htm.
Sometimes the URL contains a directory name as well as. For example in http://www.hyperglossary.co.uk/concept/url.htm, the page url.htm is stored on www.hyperglossary.co.uk in a directory called "concept". You do not have to bother about this - you just type in the URL or click on a link.
 
hyperglossary.co.uk is the part of the Web site name that has to be registered centrally. It is known as the domain name. Since every organisation has a different domain name it ensures that no two web sites end up with the same address. As the owners of hyperglossary.co.uk we can create as many web sites as we like ending with "hyperglossary.co.uk". We could have had a separate Web site called "internet.hyperglossary.co.uk" if I had wanted to. The convention is that the domain name preceded by "www." , e.g. "www.hyperglossary.co.uk", is the main web site of the organisation.
See Also
For rules of construction of the domain name part of the URL - Domain Name
More Details (sometimes Technical)
The URL is used for other Internet services, for example
file:///C:/webs/html/mottle.gif file located using OS file system (not http protocol)
ftp://usc.edu/pubs/myfile.doc file accessed through FTP protocol
news:uk.finance UK news group on "finance"
 
Frequently Asked Questions
What can I do when I type a URL in and get the file not found message? This is a frequent problem when you get a URL from a someone else or from a search engine. First check that you have typed it in correctly ("/" not "\", "-"s and "."s in the right places, etc.). If this does not help it is likely that the Webmaster has reorganised the site and this page no longer exists. The best bet then is to remove the file name and directories from the end of the URL and press enter. With any luck this will take you to the site's home page, and if the site is well constructed you should be able to find the page you want by following links from there.   
Anecdotes
None yet
Links to other sites
List of URL protocols


© New Media in Business Ltd 1997-2000
Last updated: 14 February 2001

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