URL: Uniform Resource Locator

That address you see in the address box of your browser is the "Uniform Resource Locator," or "URL."  By analyzing an URL, you can see what type of web page you are looking at and where it came from.  Let's analyze the URL of the page you are looking at now.

 http :// www . oaklandcc . edu / library / Tutorial / 3_URL.htm

 http : Stands for "hypertext transfer protocol" -  Protocols from the past, such as "gopher" and "telnet," are seldom encountered today.  That's why you can usually enter an address in the address box without specifying "http"; it's understood.  The protocol is always followed by a colon and two forward slashes.

 www : Stands for "World Wide Web" - As with "http," you can often access a web address without typing the "www."

 oaklandcc :This is an abbreviated version of the creating entity's name: "Oakland Community College."

 edu/ : Domain Name - This indicates that the site is a college or university.  A domain is followed by a forward slash (/).  Often the file name (e.g. "3_URL.htm") comes next, but if the file is in a sub-folder or sub-site, that comes next.  (See the next paragraph down.)  In many cases, when the web page is the home page (main introductory page) of a web site, the file name is not shown in your browser's address line.

 library/ : This is a subfolder, or subset, of the larger OCC web site, with the name indicating the creating entity, the library.  It is followed by a forward slash (/).  If there were more subfolders--i.e., folders within folders--each would be followed by a slash until the file name was reached

 3_URL.htm : This is the web page's file name.  The part preceding the period is usually (but not always) related to the content.  The part following the period, the "file extension," indicates the file type.  The vast majority of web pages are created in html (hypertext markup language) and have "htm" or "html" as their file extension.

Examples of other file types on the web are documents in the Microsoft Suite--Word, Excel (spreadsheets), and PowerPoint-- and the Adobe portable data file, or "PDF."  See an example of a PDF file (requires Adobe Reader, a free download), and note the file extension of "pdf."

Next, let's look at the major types of web page domains, based on their originating sources.