Full Form of URL
Full Form of URL: We all encounter with URLS’s in our daily lives by clicking a link or typing a web address. Despite using it so frequently many of us are not aware of its full form.
The full form of the abbreviation URL is Uniform Resource Locator.
This tutorial will briefly cover the definition, critical information, overviews, data included in the URL, example of URL and other detailed information related to URL or Uniform Resource Locator.
What is URL?
“URL or Uniform Resource Locator is the digital address of a resource, a particular website or webpage, or a file available on the internet. The term URL is commonly known as a web address if it links with HTTP or HTTPS.”
URL is a special type of string character that is used to access information from the WWW or World Wide Web. URL connects the user to a web source, defines the location of file, website, or webpage on a computer network, and provides a mechanism for recovering it. A URL is a special sort of Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), although both phrases are used interchangeably in the technical world. URLs are used most regularly to reference websites or web pages (HTTP, HTTPS). Other than this, they are also used in file transfer protocol (ftp), email management, database access (JDBC), and various different applications. URL was formulated in 1994 by Tim Berners-Lee.
The overviews of URL (Uniform Resource Locator) are as follows:
| Criteria | Overviews |
| Status | Published |
| First published | 1994 |
| Latest version | Living Standard 2021 |
| Organization | Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) |
| Series | Request for Comments (RFC) |
| Committee | WHATWG or Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group |
| Domain | WWW (World Wide Web) |
| Related standards | URIURN |
| Series | Request for Comments (RFC) |
| Base standards | RFC 3986. – Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax. RFC 4248. – The telnet URI Scheme.RFC 4266. – The gopher URI Scheme.RFC 6068. – The ‘mailto’ URI Scheme.RFC 6196. – Moving mailserverRFC 6270. – The ‘tn3270’ URI Scheme. |
| Editors | Anne van Kesteren |
| Website | https://url.spec.whatwg.org/ |
Information included in the URL
The Uniform Resource Locator (URL) contains the following details:
- Name of the protocol
- A colon followed by a double forward slash: (//)
- Name of the domain (hostname) or IP(Internet Protocol) Address
- A colon(:) followed by the port number
- The resource file’s full path
Example of URL
https://www.tutorialandexample.com/full-form/
In the above URL
- Protocol Name– https
- Domain – tutorialandexample.com
- Resource or File path – /full-form
The user can manually enter the URL by typing it in any search engine or web browser’s address bar. If the URL does not carry a legitimate domain, the browser may throw a 'Server not found' error, or if the URL route is incorrect; in that case, it may display a 404 error. A URL does not comprise any spaces between the words; instead, it uses hashes & underscores to separate two words. Also, to represent different files, it includes forward slashes.
Frequently Asked Questions / FAQ’s
Question 1: What is the difference between URL and URI?
Answer: The difference between URL and URI are as follows:
| URL | URI |
| The full form of the abbreviation URL is Uniform Resource Locator. | The full form of the abbreviation URI is Uniform Resource Identifier. |
| Uniform Resource Locator is the digital address of a resource, a particular website or webpage, or a file available on the internet. | URI is a term used for all the name and addresses which display objects and permits resources to be reached by other computers networks on the WWW (World Wide Web). The term URL is commonly known as a web address if it links with HTTP or HTTPS. |
Question 2: Is URL and domain name defines the same meaning?
Answer: No, URL and domain name do not conclude the same meaning. Although many people use both the terms interchangeably but there is a valid difference between URL and domain name.
A domain name is just a part of the URL. A URL includes the domain name, along with additional detailed data to generate a unique web address, which is further used to direct a search engine or web browser to a definite web page.