The acronym URL stands for "uniform resource locator," a
fancy term for the unique location of a particular web file on the
Internet. A typical URL looks like this:
http://www.hindsight.co.uk/basics/index.html
Why is this important? If you know what a URL means, you can
tell a lot about the source of the pages you are viewing. We'll begin
by breaking the URL into its component parts.
http:// is the
protocol (a set of operating rules) by which computers on the
Internet send files back and forth. The protocol for the Web
"http" is called " hypertext transfer protocol."
www.hindsight.co.uk is
the domain name. The domain name is the unique name for a system or
location which contains the web site you are viewing. The .co.uk
tells you that the site is probably for a company based somewhere in
the uk.
/basics/ is the pathname. A
pathname ( this is not always part of a URL ) is the location within
the web site where a specific web page is located. This is similar to
a subfolder or a folder within a folder. Pathnames can be called
anything that the web sites creator came up with. In most cases, the
use of a tilde "~" in a pathname indicates a web site
reserved for a given individual's personal use.
index.html is
the file name. It is the name of a single web page, located on the Internet.
All Internet addresses contain these components in varying combinations.
