HTML & CSS: The Complete Reference, Fifth Edition, 5th Edition

APPENDIX D URLs

AURL (uniform resource locator)¹ is a uniform way to refer to objects and services on the Internet. Even novice users should be familiar with typing a URL, such as http://www.htmlref.com, in a browser dialog box, to get to a Web site. However, URLs can be used for far more than just retrieving a Web page and can be used to invoke other Internet services, such as transferring files via FTP or sending e-mail. Despite its potentially confusing collection of slashes and colons, URL syntax is designed to provide a clear, simple notation that people can easily understand. The concepts in this section will help you to better understand the syntax of URLs, which is key to linking documents in and beyond a Web site.

NOTE The W3C often ...