Quick answers to real classroom technology questions. An online service of the Educational Technology Clearinghouse.
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What is a URL ? Addresses for web sites are called URLs (Uniform Resource Locators). Most of them begin with the protocol used to access web pages, http (HyperText Transfer Protocol), followed by a colon and two slashes. Many web addresses include www, but this is not always the case. For example, the URL for FIRN's web site is http://www.firn.edu and the URL for the Florida Center for Instructional Technology is http://fcit.usf.edu/ . The different parts of a URL are divided by a period. Each part of a URL contains certain information. The first field is the host name, identifying a single computer or organization. The last field is the top-level domain, describing the type of organization and occasionally country of origin associated with the address. Below are some common Top Level Domains (TLD's): .com .edu .gov .mil .net .org Commercial Educational US Government US Military Networking Providers Non-profit Organization Current domain name country codes include, but are not limited to: .au .de .fr .nl .uk .us Australia Germany France Netherlands United Kingdom United States Some URL addresses include a directory path and a file name. Consequently, the addresses can become quite long. For example, the URL of a web page may be: http://fcit.usf.edu/holocaust/default.htm . In this example, "default.htm" is the name of the file which is in a directory named "holocaust" on the FCIT server at the University of South Florida. A convention used when creating websites is that the first page created for the site is named index.html or default.html. Web browsers are configured to access this file if a specific file name is not included in the URL used to access a site.			Additional Websites The Internet: Ideas, Activities, and Resources Internet 101 net.Tutor A Teacher's Guide to School Websites Making the Connection Technology at Harvard Law: RSS 2.0 Specification Podcasting and iTunes The WebQuest Page
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Site Map | Submit a Question | About Tech-Ease | Privacy Policy | ETC Home Tech-Ease for Mac is your source for just-in-time answers for classroom technology questions. A companion Tech-Ease for Windows site is also available. This collection is a part of the Educational Technology Clearinghouse and is funded in part by a grant from the Florida Department of Education. Copyright 2008 by the Florida Center for Instructional Technology, College of Education, University of South Florida.