Uniform Resource Locator (URL)

A Uniform Resource Locator, commonly known as a URL, is a specific address used to identify a resource on the internet. It essentially tells a web browser where to find a particular file or webpage.

What does a URL tell us?

A URL provides information about:

• The protocol: Specifies how the browser should communicate with the server (e.g., HTTP, HTTPS, FTP).
• The domain name: The name of the server hosting the resource (e.g., google.com).
• The path: Indicates the location of the specific resource on the server (e.g., /images/logo.png).

URL Structure

A typical URL consists of several parts, separated by periods and slashes. Here's a breakdown:

Part	Description	Example
Protocol	Specifies the communication method.	https://
Domain Name	The name of the server.	www.example.com
Top-Level Domain (TLD)	The suffix of the domain name (e.g., .com, .org, .uk).	.com
Path	Specifies the location of the resource on the server.	/images/logo.png
Query Parameters	Additional information passed to the server.	?search=computer+science&sort=relevance
Fragment Identifier	Specifies a specific section within a resource.	#section2

Example URLs

Here are some examples of URLs:

• https://www.bbc.com/news: This URL points to the BBC News homepage.
• http://example.org/documents/report.pdf: This URL points to a PDF document named "report.pdf" located in the "documents" directory on the example.org server.
• https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page#History: This URL points to the "History" section of the Wikipedia Main Page.

Understanding URLs is fundamental to understanding how the internet works and how web browsers locate and retrieve information.