Understanding
URLs
One
of the ways we can evaluate the quality of a particular web site is
to look at the URL, or address.
URLs
are constructed of several parts, each of which can give us clues about
how a page is delivered, where it is stored, and who created it.
Here
is an example of a URL, with its various components identified:
Hypertext
transfer protocol (HTTP) - is the protocol, which tells us HOW
a web site is delivered. Another protocol is ftp, which stands for file
transfer protocol. These protocols tell the computer what action to
take and coordinate the transfer of information from one computer to
another. In most cases, you no longer need to enter http in the location
bar when typing in a URL.
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to URL example
Host
address/Domain - This tells us WHO is responsible for the
site. In this example, www means
that it is a World Wide Web site, and si stands
for the place name, which in this case is the Smithsonian Institution.
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to URL example
Domain
name extension - This tells us WHAT KIND of page we are looking
at. There are 6 common domain extensions:
- .edu
(educational institutions and facilities)
- These are often mistakenly assumed to be "safe" sites,
since they are hosted by educational institutions. While they may
contain great information, always look at the directory
and file information to find out more about
the page. ex. www.slu.edu
- .com
(commercial and business – most widely used) - Although
they may include good information, always remember that the ultimate
goal of these sites is to sell something! ex. www.oreida.com
- .gov
(U.S. government agencies) - Probably
the most neutral source of information, but remember, different political
parties may have an impact on what is included or left out of particular
sites! ex. www.senate.gov
- .mil
(military sites)
- All
branches of the military should have this domain extension. ex.
www.navy.mil
- .org
(non profit organization)
- These
sites tend to present the specific point of their organizations. You
can get some great information here, but watch out for excessive bias!
ex. www.nra.org
- .net
(large internet service provider)
- These sites are hosted by an Internet service provider. Most .net
pages will be similar to .coms. ex. www.sirsi.net
Each country has
its own two letter International Country Code, for example:
.jp Japan
.mx Mexico
.ie Ireland
The United States
has a code of .us. One place you may have seen this code is on public
and some private school web sites, e.g. www.communityschool.k12.mo.us.
Click here
to see a list of all two letter country domain name extensions.
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to URL example
Directory
name - This tells us WHERE we are within a particular web
site. In this example, we go first to the Smithsonian Institute's main
page, then the Science and Technology directory within that web site.
The Smithsonian Institute web site is huge, so it helps to have a specific
area to look at. Important! Sometimes the directory may be a
personal directory. If this is the case, you should see either a ~ or
a # in front of the directory pathway. ex. http://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=4571725572
(a personal fan page for the Jonas Brothers) Note: you can now pay for domain names which makes your web page seem more official, so you should
always look at the content carefully
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to URL example
File
name - This is usually the final part of a web site, and frequently
ends with .html or .htm. It refers to the one specific file that we
are looking at, so it tells us WHERE we are in a particular directory
of a web site. In this example, we are looking at the animals file
within the science and technology directory of the Smithsonian
Institute web site.
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to URL example
REVIEW
OK - now that you
understand how URLs are assembled, let's take a look at a few and see
if you can identify the various components. Remember, each part of the
URL pathway is separated by a / and within a pathway unit the words
are separated by periods. If you cannot guess the meaning of the URL,
highlight the final part of the URL back to the /, delete that section
and hit return again. You should get to a broader level of that web
site. If you don't see any information that helps you, take off one
more section and see what you get, and so on until you have reduced
the URL to its host and domain extension. Here are two URL's to dissect:
http://www.jburroughs.org/computing/class8/8thcomputing/URLS.html
http://www.metmuseum.org/visitor/vi_index_spanish.htm
Here is one more
that may be a little tricky. Sometimes a directory level may come before
a general host address. If that is the case, after you have shortened
the URL back to its domain name extension, remove the word and the period
right after the http://, then hit return and see if you get to
the top level of the web site host.
http://library.wustl.edu/about/olinlibrary.html
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