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Anatomy of a URL
The URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the "address" of a particular document on the Internet. By typing the URL in the "location" or "open" box of
your browser and pressing <enter>, you will bring this document to your
computer’s desktop. The address includes the protocol which is needed to obtain the
document, a computer host and domain name (which includes domain and sub-domain
information), the directory path (indicated by /dir/--there may be multiple directories),
and the file name with extension (sometimes not included). The URL looks something like
this:
protocol://host.subdomain1.topdomain/dir1/dir2/filename.ext
Example 1:
http://www.state.id.us/legislat/legislat.html
- The protocol is http (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) used for all World Wide Web
pages
- The host name is www
- The domain name address is state.id.us
- The sub-domain is state, indicating a state government site
- The top-level domain is id.us, indicating the geographic location of Idaho,
United States
- The first directory is legislat
- The filename is legislat, extension is htm
Example 2:
http://library.boisestate.edu/hours/
- The protocol is http (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) used for all World Wide Web
pages
- The host name is library
- The domain name address is boisestate.edu
- The top-level domain is edu, indicating an educational institution
- The first directory is hours
- There is no filename in this example.
Example 3:
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Glossary.html
- The protocol is http (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) used for all World Wide Web
pages
- The host name is www.lib
- The domain name address is berkeley.edu
- The top-level domain is edu, indicating an educational institution
- This example has three directories: TeachingLib, Guides, Internet
- The file name is Glossary, extension is html
As seen in these examples, there are two schemes available for top-level domains--by
type of organization (these domain names are registered in the U.S.A.) or by geographic
location.
Top-level domains by type of organization are:
- edu: educational institutions (post-secondary)
- com: commercial business or for-profit organizations
- gov: U.S. government organizations
- mil: U.S. military organizations
- net: networking organizations
- org: nonprofit organizations
Top-level domains by geographic location include:
- ar: Argentina (Argentine Republic)
- au: Australia
- ca: Canada
- ch: Switzerland
- cl: Chile (Republic of)
- cn: China (People’s Republic of)
- de: Germany (Federal Republic of)
- es: Spain
- mx: Mexico
- uk: United Kingdom
- us: United States of America
- In the case of us, the two letter postal code for the state precedes the us
as in id.us
In some instances there are sub-domains such as:
- cc: community colleges
- tec: technical colleges
- lib: libraries
- k12: Kindergarten through 12 grade schools and districts
- state: state government
- mus: museums
More about the .us domain name can be found at: http://www.nic.us/about_us/index.html
A more comprehensive list of country top-level domains is at: http://ftp.ics.uci.edu/pub/websoft/wwwstat/domains.pl
In November, 2000 the Internet Corporation for the
Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) approved several new top-level domain
names. These will be available
for registration as the ICANN negotiates registry agreements with the
applicants selected. New names
are:
-
biz: businesses
-
info: general use
-
pro: professionals
- name: personal Web sites
- aero: aviation industry
- coop: business cooperatives
- museum: museums
More about this process can be found at the ICANN
and InterNIC websites
Transfer protocols that you may see include:
- http:// hypertext transfer protocol
- https:// secure hypertext transfer protocol
- ftp:// file transfer protocol which enables you to download files from the
Internet
- gopher:// Gopher protocol
- telnet:// telnet protocol which connects you directly to the host computer.
- news:// this enables reading USENET news
Page Creator: Beth Brin,
Albertsons Library, Boise State University, 1910 University Dr., Boise, ID, 83725
(208) 426-3136.
This page was last modified 08/13/02
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