Keyword: URL (Uniform Resource Locator)

A URL (Uniform Resource Locator) (pronounced YU-AHR-EHL or, in some quarters, UHRL) is the address of a file (resource) accessible on the Internet. The type of resource depends on the Internet application protocol. Using the World Wide Web's protocol, the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) , the resource can be an HTML page (like the one you're reading), an image file, a program such as a CGI application or Java applet, or any other file supported by HTTP. The URL contains the name of the protocol required to access the resource, a domain name that identifies a specific computer on the Internet, and a hierarchical description of a file location on the computer.

On the Web (which uses the Hypertext Transfer Protocol), an example of a URL is:

http://www.mhrcc.org/kingston

which describes a Web page to be accessed with an HTTP (Web browser) application that is located on a computer named www.mhrcc.org. The specific file is in the directory named /kingston and is the default page in that directory (which, on this computer, happens to be named index.html).

An HTTP URL can be for any Web page, not just a home page, or any individual file. For example, this URL would bring you the whatis.com logo image:

http://whatis.com/whatisAnim2.gif

A URL for a program such as a forms-handling CGI script written in Perl might look like this:

http://whatis.com/cgi-bin/comments.pl

A URL for a file meant to be downloaded would require that the "ftp" protocol be specified like this one:

ftp://www.company.com/papers/widgets.ps

A URL is a type of URI (Uniform Resource Identifier).

Sources: whatis.com