Using the Web is easy—that's why it's so popular. But if there's one thing about Web surfing that trips up newcomers, it's using Web page addresses effectively. So here and now, I'll set you straight on Web page addresses so that you can leap online with confidence.
For the most part, you'll deal with only two kinds of addresses for most Internet activities:
Email addresses— These are easy to spot because they always contain an “at” symbol (@). You'll learn all about email addresses in Chapter 5.
Web addresses— These never contain an @ symbol. Web page addresses are expressed as a series of letters separated by periods (.) and sometimes forward slashes (/), for example, www.microsoft.com/index/contents.htm. A Web address is sometimes referred to as a URL.
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Although most URLs are Web page addresses, other types of URLs may be used in a Web browser for accessing other types of Internet resources. You'll learn about Web page URLs in this chapter, and about other types later in this book.
If you keep your eyes open, you'll see Web page and site addresses everywhere these days. By typing an address in your Web browser (as you learn to do shortly), you can go straight to that page, the page the address “points to.” Just to give you a taste of the possibilities, and to get you accustomed to the look and feel of a Web site address, Table 4.1 shows the addresses of some fun and/or interesting Web sites.
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Address | Description |
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www.cnn.com | Cable News Network (CNN) |
www.ebay.com | eBay, an online auction house |
www.epicurious.com | A trove of recipes |
www.scifi.com | The SciFi Channel |
www.carprices.com | A site where you can learn all about buying a new or used auto |
www.uncf.org | The United Negro College Fund |
www.rockhall.com | Cleveland's Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Museum |
www.un.org | The United Nations |
www.nyse.com | The New York Stock Exchange |
college-solutions.com | A guide to choosing a college |
www.sleepnet.com | Help for insomniacs |
www.nasa.gov | The space agency's site |
www.adn.com | The Anchorage, Alaska, Daily News |
www.twinsmagazine.com | Advice for parents of multiples |
imdb.com | The Internet Movie Database, everything about every film ever made |
www.amazon.com | Amazon.com, a popular online bookshop |
www.nhl.com | The National Hockey League |
The address of a Web site is made up of several different parts. Each part is separated from those that follow it by a single, forward slash (/).
The first part of the address—everything up to the first single slash—is the Internet address of a Web server. Everything following that first slash is a directory path and/or filename of a particular page on the server. For example, consider the following fictitious URL:
www.dairyqueen.com/icecream/sundaes/fudge.htm
The filename of the actual Web page is fudge.htm. (Web page files often use a filename extension of .htm or .html.) That file is stored in a directory or folder called sundaes, which is itself stored in the icecream directory. These directories are stored on a Web server whose Internet address is www.dairyqueen.com.
Sometimes, an address will show just a server address, and no Web page filename. That's okay—many Web servers are set up to show a particular file to anyone who accesses the server (or a particular server directory) without specifying a Web page filename.
For example, if you go to the address of Microsoft's Web server, www.microsoft.com, the server automatically shows you an all-purpose Web page you can use for finding and jumping to other Microsoft pages. Such pages are often referred to as “top” or “index” pages, and often even use index.htm as their filename. The extension at the end of a filename (such as .htm) will vary based on the program that created it. You'll see lots of .cfm, .jsp, and .asp extensions along with the .htm and .html ones.
1. | Connect to the Internet and open your Web browser. After a few moments, your home page (whatever it may be) appears (see Figure 4.2). Figure 4.2. Step 1: Open your browser to your home page. |
2. | Examine your browser's toolbar area. The address you see there is the address of your home page (see Figure 4.3). Figure 4.3. Step 2: Find the address of your home page. |
3. |
18.217.139.162