1. Anatomy of a URL
What is a URL anyway?

2. URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator
That’s just another way to say it’s an address pointing to an Internet resource.

3. Think of it like you think of your address.
The post office can’t deliver a letter unless there is a unique address to deliver it. You need the number of the house, the name of the street, the city or town and the correct zip code.

4. Every site on the Internet has its own unique URL.
You can learn a lot about the site just by understanding its URL.

5. Example http://www.google.com/ http www google.com
Stands for hyper text transfer protocol
That indicates the means by which the data is sent over the Internet. (Some other protocols are ftp and mailto, but http is most common.)
www
Stands for world wide web
google.com
Is the domain name. The first part (google) must be registered officially to insure that there are not two identical domain names. The second part (.com) gives clues to the type of site it is.

6. Some Common Suffixes for Domain Names
Type of Page
Domain Suffix
Example
Advocacy or Organization Webpage
.org
Business/Commercial Webpage
.com
.biz
Government Information Webpage
.gov
Educational Webpage
.edu
Personal Webpage
Tilde after the suffix (~)
Military Webpage
.mil
Network Organization Webpage
.net
Informational Webpage
.info
Webpages with Video
.tv
Country Codes (examples; there are too many to list)
.ca, .uk

7. What the Suffixes Mean Domain Suffix Example .org
Advocate a particular point of view or deal with a specific subject or topic; nonprofit
.com
For profit; may be trying to sell you something
.biz
.gov
Government website; generally up-to-date, accurate, unbiased
.edu
Educational institution; generally up-to-date, accurate, unbiased
tilde after the suffix (~)
Personal site; could be biased or unbiased; could be trying to sell you something; could be accurate or inaccurate.
.mil
From the military; perhaps biased, accurate, generally up-to-date
.net
This URL was designed for organizations involved in networking technologies, but restrictions were not enforced and it is now a general purpose name space.
.info
Created in 2000 for informative web sites
.tv
Contains video; could be personal, business, or professional site.
.ca, .uk, etc.
From specific countries; could be commercial; a site originating in a specific country

8. Information that comes AFTER the suffix:
The letters/words that follow the domain take you to specific webpages or to directories (folders)
For example: takes you to the main page of the world news page on the NYTimes website
The last characters of a URL indicate the type of file:
htm or html are webpages
jpg or gif or png are images
doc are word documents
pdf are pdf files
aspx are dynamic webpages
There are others as well; too many to mention