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Internet - What is an Url?

(Please note that this information is not 100% complete but should include enough relative information for most people).

An URL (Uniform or Universal Resource Locator, depending on who you ask), is an address for information on the net. It is not necessarily an address to web-based information, although these addresses are used most frequently with web browsers.

An URL consists of the following:

[resource type]://[path to file]

The [resource type] can be any one of the following. This is just a list of very common resource types.

http - hyper-text transfer protocol. A website or webpage, more or less
ftp - file transfer protocol. A file or directory on a computer that is setup to transfer files over the Internet
news - USENET newsgroups. Message forums that span the world
file - any file on your machine. Yes, you can view files on your machine with a program that supports urls.
gopher - the GOPHER service. A menu-based hierarchy of information rarely used nowadays.

The [path to file] is the exact path to the file on a system. Note that it is recommended to use the Un*x based method of denoting directories and subdirectories with a slash '/' instead of a back-slash '\'. If the path to file ends with a slash instead of a filename (such as index.htm, file.exe, graphic.gif, etc.), then normally an index file or home file will be accessed, if available. Else, this sometimes brings up a list of files in the directory specified by the url.