A URL is an acronym (and an anglicism from information technology) that refers to the network address where some computer resource is located, such as a computer file or a peripheral device (printer, multifunction device, network drive, etc.). This network can be the Internet, a corporate network (such as an intranet), etc. In TCP/IP networks, a complete URL has the following structure: ://:/path/?# The protocol is: It could be HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, etc. The machine address is: it designates the server that provides the requested document or resource. The server is the logical point at which the connection to the server can be made. (optional) The location specifies the site (usually in a file system) where the file is located, within the server. The parameter is a set of one or more "question-answer" or "parameter-argument" pairs (such as namefulano, where name can be, for example, a variable, and fulano is the value (argument) assigned to name). It's a string sent to the server so that it's possible to filter or even create the resource. (optional) The `uri-spec` is a specific part or position within the resource. (optional) The scheme tells the computer how to connect (what language the computer should use for communication), the domain specifies where to connect (the location of the other computer), and the other URL elements specify what is being requested. Example: http://www.w3.org/Addressing/URL/uri-spec.html In the example above, the protocol is HTTP, the server is designated as www.w3.org, and the resource (in this case, the uri-spec.html file) is located at Addressing/URL/. The port, omitted, follows the protocol standard (in this case, port 80), and there is no query string or fragment identifier.