What is a URL?

URL addresses

The URL is the acronym for Universal Resource Locator. The URL is the full address of a web page. It consists of the domain name and the connection protocol to access this page. For example, the full URL for Google.com is https://www.google.com.

Among other things, URLs help browsers display websites. They can also be used to open files or directly access web pages. They work a bit like mailing addresses, telling the web browser the location of the desired content.

URLs are composed of several distinct parts. These include a protocol, a domain name and, in some cases, a path.

First, the protocol specifies how the browser should connect to the website (HTTP or HTTPS, for example). Then the domain name points to the website in question. The path finally tells the browser on which page of this website to go.

For example, the “https://www.examplesite.com/path/to_the/page ” URL tells the browser to use the HTTPS protocol to connect to the “www.examplesite.com” website. Next, they must open the “/path/to_the/page” page they find on this site.

URLs are usually visible in the Web browser navigation bar, where they can be entered directly. They can also appear as links that you can click on.

When a user clicks on a URL, it usually opens automatically in the web browser.

Updated on: 22/03/2023