Understanding URLs

Each page of information on the WWW has a unique address, called a URL (‘Uniform Resource Locator’). The URL is displayed in the address window at the top of the screen.

Here is a simple address of a website: http://www.google.com

http:// All Internet addresses start with these letters. They stand for ‘hypertext transfer protocol’. www stands for ‘World Wide Web’ and generally follows the ‘http://’. google This part of the address will often describe the site content or owners. .com This part tells us about the type of website. This is a commercial site; other types include:

.gov – government
.edu – educational
.com – commercial
.org – organisation
.net – network services, often used by commercial sites that do not easily fit into the other categories.