Page URLs
As the World Wide Web is such a vast entity, to remain useful and practical, it is paramount that the information within it is easily locatable and retrievable. To this end, Uniform Resource Locators, or URLs, provide a consistent way for web browsers to locate information on the web. Although URLs look confusing at first glance, they actually consist of a very logical collection of parts. A typical URL is displayed, dissected and described below:
| Component | Description |
|---|---|
| Protocol | Indicates to the browser which set of instructions is required to access the information and may include http (HyperText Transfer Protocol), ftp (File Transfer Protocol), Gopher etc. |
| Host name | Indicates the name of the computer system on which the information is stored (i.e. hosted). This computer is connected to the internet. |
| Directory and/or filename | Indicates the location and name of the information on the host computer. |
