{"id":922,"date":"2014-06-24T19:37:49","date_gmt":"2014-06-24T19:37:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/transfer.writingcommons.org\/2014\/06\/24\/understanding-urls\/"},"modified":"2022-09-20T13:22:21","modified_gmt":"2022-09-20T12:22:21","slug":"understanding-urls","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/writingcommons.org\/article\/understanding-urls\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding URLs"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"tts_content_wrapper_2\" ><p>URL stands for <b>Uniform Resource Locator<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>A URL is just the internet address for any given webpage:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-919\" style=\"margin: 14px 0;\" src=\"https:\/\/writingcommons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/WC1.png\" alt=\"Understanding URL Structure, WritingCommons.org\" width=\"597\" height=\"205\" srcset=\"https:\/\/writingcommons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/WC1.png 597w, https:\/\/writingcommons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/WC1-300x103.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 597px) 100vw, 597px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Understanding the component parts of a URL can be helpful in a variety of situations. Here are just a few reasons why understanding URLs is useful:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The URL often reveals key information about a site<\/li>\n<li>An understanding of URLs provides the needed foundation for many advanced search strategies<\/li>\n<li>A heightened attention to URLs helps searchers recognize fraudulent sites<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Each section below focuses on a different part of the URL. At the end of the webtext is a quiz that you can take to test your understanding of URLs.<\/p>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_69_1 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 eztoc-toggle-hide-by-default' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/writingcommons.org\/article\/understanding-urls\/#Locate_the_protocol\" title=\"Locate the protocol\">Locate the protocol<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/writingcommons.org\/article\/understanding-urls\/#Locate_the_domain_name\" title=\"Locate the domain name\">Locate the domain name<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/writingcommons.org\/article\/understanding-urls\/#Recognize_sub-directories\" title=\"Recognize sub-directories\">Recognize sub-directories<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/writingcommons.org\/article\/understanding-urls\/#Recognize_subdomains\" title=\"Recognize subdomains\">Recognize subdomains<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/writingcommons.org\/article\/understanding-urls\/#Recognize_top-level_domains\" title=\"Recognize top-level domains\">Recognize top-level domains<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/writingcommons.org\/article\/understanding-urls\/#Use_your_understanding_of_URLs_to_enhance_your_web_searching\" title=\"Use your understanding of URLs to enhance your web searching\">Use your understanding of URLs to enhance your web searching<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-7\" href=\"https:\/\/writingcommons.org\/article\/understanding-urls\/#Filter_by_top-level_domain\" title=\"Filter by top-level domain\">Filter by top-level domain<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-8\" href=\"https:\/\/writingcommons.org\/article\/understanding-urls\/#Filter_by_domain\" title=\"Filter by domain\">Filter by domain<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Locate_the_protocol\"><\/span>Locate the protocol<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>The \u201cprotocol\u201d is the first part of URL. Some browsers simplify how addresses are displayed by hiding the protocol: for example, in Chrome and Firefox, <b>https:\/\/writingcommons.org<\/b> displays as <b>writingcommons.org<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The protocol <b>https<\/b> indicates that information sent through the page will be encrypted, and therefore harder to read if some third party intercepts the information. (The next time you are entering a username and password on a page, check for the \u201chttps\u201d protocol.)<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Locate_the_domain_name\"><\/span>Locate the domain name<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>The \u201cdomain name\u201d identifies the site that contains the page you are viewing. It appears just before the first single slash (\/). If there is no single slash, then the domain name is whatever appears at the end of the URL.<\/p>\n<p>For example, the following URLs all refer to pages on the Writing Commons site:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">http:\/\/<b>writingcommons.org\/<\/b>open-text\/information-literacy<br \/>\n<b>writingcommons.org<\/b><b>\/<\/b>open-text\/research-methods-methodologies\/integrate-evidence\/incorporate-evidence\/1030-synthesizing-your-research-findings<br \/>\nwww.<b>writingcommons.org<\/b><\/p>\n<p>If you look carefully, you will see that most browsers try to help users out by boldfacing the domain name in the address bar.\u00a0 Example:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-920\" style=\"margin: 14px 14px 7px;\" src=\"https:\/\/writingcommons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/WC2.png\" alt=\"WC2\" width=\"486\" height=\"43\" srcset=\"https:\/\/writingcommons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/WC2.png 486w, https:\/\/writingcommons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/WC2-300x27.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 486px) 100vw, 486px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Being able to locate the domain name in a URL allows you to identify the entity that hosts the page you are viewing\u2014a piece of information that is often crucial to understanding the nature of your source.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Recognize_sub-directories\"><\/span>Recognize sub-directories<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Elements of the URL that appear after the domain indicate different sub-directories. For example:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-921\" style=\"margin: 14px 14px 7px;\" src=\"https:\/\/writingcommons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/WC3.png\" alt=\"WC3\" width=\"615\" height=\"90\" srcset=\"https:\/\/writingcommons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/WC3.png 615w, https:\/\/writingcommons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/WC3-300x44.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 615px) 100vw, 615px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In the example above, \u201copen-text,\u201d \u201cinformation-literacy,\u201d and \u201crhetorical-analysis\u201d are sub-directories of the domain writingcommons.org. Think of these as folders within folders.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Recognize_subdomains\"><\/span>Recognize subdomains<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Subdomains are similar to sub-directories in that they provide a way for website developers to separate content, but subdomains appear before the domain name in the URL. Don\u2019t let this trip you up. The domain name is still the content that appears pressed up against the first single slash (\/) or\u2014if there is no single slash\u2014at the very end of the URL.<\/p>\n<p>For example, the domain name in all of the following URLs is <b>google.com<\/b><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">www<b>.google.com<br \/>\n<\/b>books<b>.google.com<\/b><br \/>\nhttps:\/\/accounts<b>.google.com<\/b>\/Login<\/p>\n<p>Pay attention to the placement of the dots. The following is <em>not<\/em> a Google page:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">www.mgoogle.com<\/p>\n<p>Here the domain is <b>mgoogle.com<\/b>, not <b>google.com<\/b><\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Recognize_top-level_domains\"><\/span>Recognize top-level domains<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>In the domain name <strong>writingcommons.org<\/strong>, the \u201ctop-level domain\u201d is <strong>.org<\/strong>. The top-level domain <strong>.org<\/strong> was originally intended for use by non-profit organizations\u2014and many non-profits continue to use it\u2014but it is now open to anyone.<\/p>\n<p>In the domain name <strong>amazon.com<\/strong>, the top-level domain is <strong>.com<\/strong>. Short for \u201ccommercial,\u201d <strong>.com<\/strong> is the most common top-level domain in the world and is now used for a wide variety of sites\u2014not just the sites of commercial enterprises.<\/p>\n<p>Some top-level domains have retained their original meanings and are especially helpful to know:<\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>domain<\/strong><\/td>\n<td><strong>description<\/strong><\/td>\n<td><strong>example<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>.edu<\/td>\n<td>university site<\/td>\n<td>http:\/\/www.nu.edu<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>gov<\/td>\n<td>government site<\/td>\n<td>http:\/\/www.senate.gov<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>.mil<\/td>\n<td>military site<\/td>\n<td>http:\/\/www.army.mil<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>Newer top-level domains such as <strong>.museum<\/strong>, <strong>.bike<\/strong>, and <strong>.clothing<\/strong> are not yet widely used.<\/p>\n<p>Some domains include a country domain extension\u2014or \u201ccountry code top level domain.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Here are some examples:<\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>code<\/strong><\/td>\n<td><strong>country<\/strong><\/td>\n<td><strong>example<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>.in<\/td>\n<td>India<\/td>\n<td>indianrail.gov.in<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>.de<\/td>\n<td>Germany<\/td>\n<td>www.spiegel.de<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>.ca<\/td>\n<td>Canada<\/td>\n<td>www.cbc.ca<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>.jp<\/td>\n<td>Japan<\/td>\n<td>www.nicovideo.jp<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>.uk<\/td>\n<td>United Kingdom<\/td>\n<td>www.ima.org.uk<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>Pay attention to country domain extensions. When present in a URL, they represent a core component of the domain. Note, for example, that <strong>hydra.com<\/strong> and <strong>hydra.com.gr<\/strong> are different domains. The two are unrelated sites run by unrelated entities.<\/p>\n<p>For a comprehensive list of top-level domains, consult\u00a0 one of the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/List_of_Internet_top-level_domains\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Wikipedia: List of Internet top-level domains<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.iana.org\/domains\/root\/db\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">IANA Root Zone Database<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Use_your_understanding_of_URLs_to_enhance_your_web_searching\"><\/span>Use your understanding of URLs to enhance your web searching<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Once you understand URLs, certain kinds of advanced search strategies become easier to conceptualize, remember, and implement\u2014for example, filtering by domain and top-level domain.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Filter_by_top-level_domain\"><\/span>Filter by top-level domain<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>If you know that the kind of information you are seeking is most likely to appear on a site with a particular type of top-level domain, you can restrict your search to this type of site using the <strong>site<\/strong>: search operator.<\/p>\n<p>For example, if you are seeking government documents on the topic of student loans, then a search for <b>student loans site:gov<\/b> will return only results with the top-level domain <b>gov<\/b>, filtering out a large number of sites that are not relevant to your research needs.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Filter_by_domain\"><\/span>Filter by domain<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>If you know the domain of the site on which your information will appear, you can use site: to search only that site.<\/p>\n<p>For example, a search for <b>sample tests site:dmv.ca.gov<\/b> will return only pages located on the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) website (the domain of which is <b>dmv.ca.gov<\/b>).<\/p>\n<p>The <strong>site<\/strong>: operator works in all major search engines (Google, Bing, Baidu, DuckDuckGo, etc.).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Practice identifying deceptive URLs <a href=\"https:\/\/writingcommons.org\/2014\/06\/30\/understanding-urls-exercise-answers\/\">(click here for answers)<\/a><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The immediate benefit of the drill below will be to improve your ability to distinguish between real and fraudulent sites, but the exercise will also help you sharpen your overall URL-analysis skills by heightening your attention to the component parts of URLs.<\/p>\n<p>A) Which of the following are eBay.com web pages? Do not go to the sites. (Some sites masquerading as legitimate sites may contain harmful underlying code). Just examine the URLs.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>http:\/\/pages.ebay.com<\/li>\n<li>http:\/\/movies.half.ebay.com<\/li>\n<li><\/li>\n<li><\/li>\n<li><\/li>\n<li>https:\/\/page.@ebay.com<\/li>\n<li>https:\/\/signin-ebay.com<\/li>\n<li>https:\/\/www.ebay.com\/electronics\/ipad<\/li>\n<li><\/li>\n<li><\/li>\n<li><\/li>\n<li>https:\/\/www.ebay.com\/itm\/A-Planet-of-Viruses-by-Carl-Zimmer-2011-Hardcover-\/191063912359<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>B) Find the domain name in this URL:<\/p>\n<p>.<br \/>\nrmrlfbqjlokcjpczgs.oxcvsvcpdsoeeseytje.yucfnjtidbvnujxrwjmsea.zydyilpnchtjrriiszti.<br \/>\nzydyilpnchtjrriiszti.zydyilpnchtjrriiszti.zydyilpnchtjrriiszti.nuyovbuskl.bernadinec.com\/<br \/>\nindex.php?pageType=708XeMWZamp;cust=redacted@redacted.redactedamp;l<br \/>\n=lWXS3AlBXVShqAhQRfhgTDrf=nttps:\/\/sitekey.bnkofamerica.com\/sas\/signon.do?<br \/>\nSignIn&amp;SMSESSIONID=ASERTFGUY2I94O0389GYBH23JNMKUYH83JM<br \/>\nN12I90U82HJNASDKOASD9AS8D&amp;iv=90832yhIopOWjos<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":919,"parent":0,"menu_order":2,"template":"","tags":[2468,2469,2470,2471,2466,2467,2465],"chapters":[1843,2210],"content_type":[],"class_list":["post-922","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-com","tag-org","tag-domain","tag-subdomains","tag-understanding-urls","tag-uniform-resource-locator","tag-urls","chapters-information-literacy","chapters-information-literacy-ecosystem-core-concepts"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingcommons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingcommons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingcommons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingcommons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/writingcommons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47309,"href":"https:\/\/writingcommons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/922\/revisions\/47309"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingcommons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingcommons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingcommons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=922"},{"taxonomy":"chapters","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingcommons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/chapters?post=922"},{"taxonomy":"content_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingcommons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content_type?post=922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}