URL

http://www.computerhope.com/index.htm

The "http://" stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol and enables the browser to know what protocol it is going to use to access the information specified in the domain. 

Next, "www.", which stands for World Wide Web, is used to distinguish the type of content. This portion of the URL is not required and many times can be left out. For example, typing "http://computerhope.com" would still get you to the Computer Hope web page. This portion of the address can also be substituted for a important sub page known as a subdomain. For example, http://support.microsoft.com is the support section of Microsoft's page.

Next, "computerhope.com" is the domain name for the web site. The last portion of the domain is known as the "domain suffix" or TLD and is used to identify the type and/or location of web site. For example, .com is short for commercial. A complete listing of domain suffixes can be found by clicking here.

Finally, "index.htm" is the actual web page you're viewing on the domain. If the page you're viewing is several directories deep it may have additional directories listed in-between the domain and the page. For example, the page you're currently viewing has a URL of http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/u/url.htm, this page is in the jargon/u/ directory.

Note: A URL is not explicit to HTTP addresses; FTP, TFTP, Telnet, and other addresses are also considered URLs and will not follow the same syntax as shown in our above example. 

• See document CH0000709 for additional information about the importance of capitalization and spaces in URLs.

Also see: Address, cURL, Internet, Intranet, URI, Whack