The following URLs have several different elements you might encounter in web addresses — protocols, domains, subdomains, TLDS, paths, and named anchors.
Most of the time, you don’t need to know about all these different parts of a web address — you just click on a link or type in an address and everything is fine. But — like knowing which part of a phone number is the “area code” — it helps to understand what all these different components are.
Contents
Example 1: https://websitebuilders.com
This is the URL for the home page of this web site. Let’s take a look at the different parts of the URL:
- The protocol is
http
. - The TLD, or Top Level Domain, is
.com
, indicating that it is probably a commercial site. - The domain name is
learnthenet.com
, which gives you some sense of what the site is all about (learning about the internet). - The subdomain is
www
, which stands for World Wide Web. Newer sites don’t usually use this, but many sites that have been around for a long time still do. It indicates that the content at this address is for public viewing. - There is not a slash (
/
) and additional text after the domain name, so this is the home, or index, page for this domain.
Example 2: https://www.facebook.com/Learn-the-Net-330002341216/
This is the the URL for Learn the Net’s Facebook page (which you should definitely visit and “Like”).
- The protocol is
https
. Facebook uses HTTPS (the secure version of HTTP) because you have to be logged-in to use it, and because they store and use a lot of your personal data and information. - The TLD is
.com
, indicating that Facebook is probably a commercial site (it is). - The domain name is
facebook.com
. - They are using the
www
subdomain. Probably for usability reasons (some people still expect all domains names to begin withwww
, even though it isn’t necessary). - The path is
Learn-the-Net-330002341216
, which identifies a specific resource (our page) on their server.
Example 3: ftp://aeneas.mit.edu/
This URL is for an FTP server at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology).
- The protocol is
ftp
, or File Transfer Protocol. This is not used for interacting with a document in a browser, but rather for uploading and downloading files. - The TLD is
.edu
, indicating that the site is run by a college or university. - The domain name is
mit.edu
, indicating it is owned or controlled by MIT. There is a connection between this domain and the contents at mit.edu. - The subdomain is
aeneas
. - The hostname is
aeneas.mit.edu
- There is no path, so this is the index for the file system.
Example 4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet#Terminology
This URL is for the section titled “Terminology,” in the “Internet” article on Wikipedia.
- The protocol is
https
. - The TLD is
.org
, indicating that the domain is probably run by a non-profit organization. (That is not always true, but in this case it is.) - The domain name is
wikipedia.org
. - The subdomain is
en
. Wikipedia uses language-code subdomains. This URL is for an English-language article. - The path is
/wiki/Internet
. This identifies the specific resource (the wiki article on the Internet) on Wikipedia’s server. - This URL has a named anchor,
#Terminology
. This indicates that the URL is not just for a specific document, but for a specific place within that document. IF you followed this link, the page would be scrolled down to the “Terminology” section, rather than the top of the page.