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URL n. acronym for Uniform Resource Locator. A web resource's unique address.

              web server (host name)           named anchor
                       |                            |
        http://libweb.uoregon.edu/it/index.html#handouts
          |                            |
       protocol                 path & file name

Protocol

A protocol is a means of communication between computers. The most common protocol on the web is the hypertext transfer protocol (http). Most web addresses begin with this one. Another common protocol is mailto:, e.g., mailto:jane.doe@somewhere.org, which is pretty self-explanatory.

Web Server

This next part identifies the web server on which the page exists. The server address holds several clues. If we read the one used in the example above from right to left, we can tell that it's located at an educational institution (.edu), namely the University of Oregon (.uoregon), and probably located in the library (libweb).

Path & File Name

This part tells the web browser where to look on the web server to find the specified file.

Named Anchor

This part, which is used only occasionally, tells the browser to jump to a specific (named) spot within a web page. These named spots within a web page are created using the anchor tag with a "name" attribute instead of the "href" attribute, e.g. <a name="handouts"></a>. Newer browsers do not require you to place text inside the anchor "nest," but older browsers may be a little fussier.

More about URLs