What is a URL?
A Uniform Resource Locator (commonly known as a URL) is a link or a string that is used to reach a particular web page. A URL is made up of three parts:
- Protocol
- Hostname
- Resource location
Explanation
URLs are not as simple as they appear in the above illustration.
Suppose a user wants to buy a course on educative.io.
The user would first type educative.io in the browser’s address bar.
Once the user hits enter, the URL becomes https://www.educative.io/, and the user is directed to the site.
If the user wants to explore the Educative website, they will click, say, “Explore”. The URL becomes https://www.educative.io/explore, i.e., the “explore” section (a webpage) is appended to the URL.
Finally, when the user clicks on the course named “Database Design Fundamentals for Software Engineers”, the URL becomes https://www.educative.io/courses/database-design-fundamentals.
Broken down, the anatomy of this URL looks like this:
Protocol: The protocol is
https://www..Hostname: The domain/hostname is
educative.io.
This can also be explained through DNS.
Resource location: The location of the resource that the user desires to view is
/courses/database-design-fundamentals.
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