What is a URL and how do domain names work


What is a URL?

A web address is also called a URL or Uniform Resource Locator. Every web page has a unique URL that can be broken into three parts: the protocol, the domain name, and the file path. While in the early days many pronounced this "earl," the common pronunciation is to spell it out "u-r-1."

How do you read a web address (URL)? How do domain names work?

Domain names can tell you who the entity is, what kind of entity (company, individual, government) and sometimes what country they are from. The letters before the " : / / " describe the way a browser can get to the resource. The "http : / /" stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol, which is the way the Web moves data around. Following the colon are two slashes (always forward slashes, never backward slashes).

Some addresses may start out with https : / / or ftp: / / -these are just different types of connections, called protocols, to computers on the Web. At the end of the domain name - after the . (or "dot") - is a two- or three-letter abbreviation that indicates the top-level domain. This part of the domain tells you the kind of organization the website you are looking at is, or the country where the host server is located.

What are HTML tags and how do they work? Will they be around for a long time?

Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is a set of special codes referred to as "tags," which instruct a web browser how to display a hypertext document. It is like a collection of styles that define the different parts of a web page. All HTML documents are written in plain text (ASCII) format, making them universally readable by different web browsers running on different computer platforms.

HTML tags consist of a left angle bracket (< or "less than" symbol) followed by the name of the tag and closed by a right angle bracket (> or "greater than" symbol). Most tags are paired, with a beginning (or open) and an ending (or close) tag. You can see the HTML coding on your browser by clicking on "View," then "Source." HTML coding is what makes the Internet easily readable to crawlers, but HTML has many weaknesses. So the creative minds behind the Internet have been looking to a newer language to help move the Internet into its next phase. It is called XML.

As Internet expert John December explains, XML (extensible Markup Language) is a method for defining structure in documents. The philosophy behind XML is that the information (text, images, etc.) of a document can be identified through a set of rules. With these rules, a variety of software applications (like browsers) can interpret, display, or process data in documents. XML, similar to HTML, was created to specifically address the issue of writing documents for the Web. As in HTML, XML authors use elements bracketed by open and close tags. Unlike HTML, XML does not limit you to a fixed set of elements and entities, giving you much more flexibility and allowing the documents to include context and have structural relationships in your documents. XML is the next big language.

Using XML, you will be able to define your own elements, which allows you to create a logical structure in documents. So instead of being locked in by HTML coding, you can add elements (like an image or a person) to help define structures that are in complex relationship. This flexibility will ultimately help organize web pages and how they relate to one another.

Legal Disclaimer

Our website is not responsible for the information contained by this article. Articleinput.com is a free articles resource thus practically any visitor can submit an article. However if you notice any copyrighted material, please contact us and we will remove the article(s) in discussion right away.

Note: This article was sent to us by: Ethan B. Kendall at 08212010

Related Articles

1. Social networking sites change the use of the Internet
Sites like MySpace, YouTube or Blogger have each in their own ways changed the ways users make use of the Internet and the World Wide Web. They are part of some broader tra...

2. Opinions about the Internet and the World Wide Web
As people begin to write not only the histories of the Internet and the World Wide Web but also the histories of academic study of the Internet and the World Wide Web, so t...

3. The influence of social networking on self identity
The current situation means that services and sites thought of as culturally significant within mobile digital culture - YouTube or Flickr, for example - can involve the up...

4. The history of search engine optimisation
SEO writing The term of SEO means "Search Engine Optimization". It appreared in 1990 and it is a branch of online marketing strategy. It is used to improve eith...

5. Become visible on Google by folowing these tips
Google Visibility Strategy Hopefully at this point, you've gone through the personal branding process and you know the following: Your personal br...

6. How to create a YouTube video to promote yourself
Often, when people are asked to develop a YouTube video, the first question is usually centered on what kind of video to produce. Erin Blaskie gave the following suggesti...

7. How to create a custom Twitter page and use other Twitter features
Creating a Custom Twitter Page You have now registered and gone through the steps setting up some of the settings for your Twitter account. Next, you want a bac...

8. Tips for getting more Twitter followers and managing your tweets
I Need Followers, Now What? Let me say that before you start trying to build a following, you will want to tweet out about 10–20 on-brand, relevant tweets...