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Website URL's... What's in a Name?

What is a URL?

Universal Resource Locators (URLS) is what websites are known as. The problem on the internet is computers talk and know each other by their IP address. Computers do not know what or who www.google.com is nor do they honestly care. When you type www.google.com into the browser at first, does not have a clue where to go and what their actual address is. When the browser does not know where to go. The browser talks to the DNS Server

The Domain Name System or DNS acts as the telephone directory. That is literally all it does. You ask it a name, it will reply with the servers IP address (number). So in this example when you ask a DNS Server what is www.google.com's actually address, it will reply with 172.217.13.68.

More Than Just Domains...

There is more to websites than just the URL and there are multiple sections to pay attention to. Let's take this page in particular: https://hermes.webster.edu/obermdom/Project/WebsiteURLS.html

1. https:// This beginning tells you what protocol is used. Most commonly you will see http or https. The S at the end of this is very important as this will tell you if the website you are about to communicate with is encrypted between your computer and the website. ALWAYS check if the connection is encrypted when accessing websites with your personal/private information. If in the event the web browser does not show this information, look for the lock.
2. hermes.webster. This is the website name and half of what is used to look up websites in the DNS. This is the name of the location where all of the websites's files and folders are kept and organized. It is easier to read URLS from Right to left (seperated by periods). Webster is the main server (host), while hermes is a sub-site. Sub sites are used to easily organize different sites that have differences within an organization. docs.google.com and drive.google.com are examples of sites that are different but all within the parent company website.
3. edu This is what is known as a Top-Level Domain. This is used to organize websites and allow some forms of control, but quickly tell what type of site it is (or could be) and what country it may be hosted by. .Com, .net, and .org are common names and anyone can get a website name purchased under the parent domain but other domains have restrictions. Only educational organizations are allowed to have .edu to ensure authenticity. U.S. (and now some state) Government websites are allowed to have .gov. However, countries have their own domains that members can utilize. .Ca is canada, .uk is United Kingdom, .cn is China. This is important to understand so you know which site you may be going to. Remember how we said to read the URL right to left? You may think going to www.bankofamerica.com will bring you to their official website, but www.bankofamerica.com.cn would be a fake website made to look legit.
4. /obermdom/Project/WebsiteURLS.html This is the file and folder path on the specified domain. This part works exactly like the files and folders on your computer.
5. ?'s and #'s This is special information that may or may not be used when accessing websites. Anything after the "?" in the URL is information given to the webpage to tell it what to do. This is most commonly used when you click on a link from an email or website and the webpage needs information so it then knows how to respond to the user.