When it comes to the Internet and browsing, the term URL is quite common. When
browsing through the web, people use the URL all the time but most people do
not even notice it. Although the term URL is heavily used in the field of
computers and the Internet, most people do not even know the full form of URL.
In this article, we are discussing the basic concepts of URLs, such as what is
a URL full form, what is a URL, what does it contain, its syntax, and more.
What You Will Learn
What is the full form of URL?
URL stands for “Uniform Resource Locator”. In context to HTTP and Hypertext, URL is known as one of the core concepts
of the Web. It is nothing but a simple technique that is used to retrieve any
published resource on the web. The full form of URL can be explained as:
| U | Uniform |
| R | Resource |
| L | Locator |
Let’s talk about what URL is:
What is URL?
The URL is the address of the resource or link to the resource on the web.
Each valid URL points to a specific address that connects to a unique resource
on the Internet. This can include many types of resources, such as an HTML
page, a CSS document, an image, etc. When a URL is used within a link with
http or https, it is known as a web address.
In other words, the URL is the character string or specific address used to
access particular data from any resource on the Internet. A URL is a type of
uniform resource identifier (also called 'URI'). URL and its resources are
managed by the owner of the webserver. The owner is responsible to carefully
manage the resources and create and associate URLs accordingly.
Note: URL was introduced in 1994 by Tim Berners-Lee and the Internet
Engineering Working Group.
What does URL contain?
Each URL includes the following information:
• The name of the network protocol
• A colon followed by the double forward slashes, such as
://
• A hostname (called domain name in general) or IP address
• A single colon followed by a port number
• The complete path of the resource (file)
Syntax of URL
The basic syntax of URL looks like this:
Scroll ⇀
Where,
Protocol
A protocol is the starting part of any URL. It is defined as the basic set of
rules that help electronic devices to communicate together. To be specific, it
tells the web browser to form a connection over specific protocols (such as
http:// or https://).
Hostname
The hostname denotes the server name on the network.
Resource Path or Filename
It denotes the path of the file (pathname or filename) on the server.
All these components jointly form the URL structure.
Example of URL
A simple example of a URL is displayed below:
Scroll ⇀
In the above URL:
• Protocol – https
• Hostname or Domain name –
www.tutorialsmate.com
•
Resource Path (or File/ Filename) – /2010/10/url-full-form.html
A URL is usually entered into the given address bar of the web browsers. In
case we enter the wrong domain name or a server, the browser returns the
error, such as 'error 404 page not found’, or ‘Server not found’. Since URL does not support spaces and already contains forward slashes, we
are only allowed to use dashes and underscores to separate the words of the
web file.
URL Vs URI
The URL and URI are not the same. The URL is an abbreviation used for "Uniform
Resource Locator", while URI is an abbreviation used for "Uniform Resource Identifier". URI is a generic term used for each identity and address, which displays
objects on WWW. It is basically a sequence of characters that
identifies a logical resource or the name and particular path of a resource
file in a uniform format.
Summary
URL (stands for 'Uniform Resource Locator') is one of the key concepts of the
web that helps web browsers to retrieve published resources via the web,
according to the user’s choice. It is nothing but an address of the particular
resource on the Web.
What others reading:
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| • USB Full Form | • INDIA Full Form |
| • VIRUS Full Form | • CMOS Full Form |
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