Clues from URLs
You can get some very useful clues about quality from the Internet address.
URL stands for "Uniform Resource Locator" and is the address of the page you are accessing. You'll usually see one at the top of your browser when you have a web page open. They look something like this: http://www.bbc.co.uk
What can a URL tell us?
URLs may look tricky to unravel, but the best way to work out "who" and "where" is to break down the URL into its component parts.
Let's look at the following web address in detail: http://www.law.bris.ac.uk/research/interests.html
|
URL |
What's this? |
Tell me more... |
| http:// | Transfer Protocol | The first part of the URL is called the protocol. It tells your browser how to deal with the file that it is about to open. The most common you will see is HTTP, or Hypertext Transfer Protocol. |
| www.law.bris | Server Name | This refers to the computer (or server) where the web pages or files you want to view are hosted. It usually contains the name of the organisation responsible for the site; in this case, the Law department at the University of Bristol . |
| ac | Top Level Domain/Organisational Code | This tells you something about the type of organisation responsible for the site (see below for more information). |
| uk | Country Code | This tells you in which country the site is hosted (find out more below). |
| research | Directory | This is a specific folder of information on the server (although it's not always given). There can be any number of these in a URL, indicated by "/" characters. |
| interests.html | File Name / File Type | This is the file you are, or will be viewing. In this case, .html is the file extension. This can change depending on the type of file: eg .mov is a video file; .doc is a document; .gif is an image. |
More clues: looking at organisational codes
You can often find out more about the nature of the organisation that owns the server from the organisation code. For example:
- .ac, .edu academic or educational servers
- .co, .com commercial servers
- .gov government servers
- .org non-governmental, non-profit making organisations
Note that different countries can have different codes for the same type of organisation. For example, a university server may have an .ac code in the UK (ac is short for "academic") but an .edu code in the USA (edu is short for "educational").
More clues: looking at country codes
You can sometimes find out more information about the country in which the server is based from the country code. For example:
- .au Australia
- .ca Canada
- .de Germany
- .fr France
- .uk United kingdom
Note however, that a country code will not always be included in a URL. Many American sites for example, will not have the country code (.us) in their URL.
Warning!
URLs may not always be straightforward clues, as there are no hard and fast rules. For example, it is possible (though perhaps unlikely) that the URL: http://MacDonalds.com does not point to the site of a hamburger outlet but to "Old MacDonald's Farm Supplies"! So just use them as a guide!
Practical hints and tips
Deleting parts of the URL to learn more about the site
It can be very useful to delete part of the right hand side of the URL to see where the new, shorter URL takes you.
By doing this you can get clues as to your location within the site and the structure of the site.
By deleting URLs from the right hand side to the single slash marks (/) you will move up the directory tree and see how the file is embedded in the site.
For example, look what happens if you delete part of the following URL:
| URL | Points to: | Tells you: |
| http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue13/music/ | an online article | this is an online article |
| http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue13/ | the contents page of issue 13 of a journal | the article is in issue 13 of this journal |
| http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/ | the home page of an e-journal | the article is contained in this journal |
You can delete part of the URL by putting your cursor at the end of the URL in the "location box" and pressing the "back" or "delete" key until you reach the slash (/), then press the "Return" key.
This technique can be especially useful for long URLs.
Finding the Home Page of a web site
A home page is the front page of a web site - the equivalent of the cover of a book - and as such can offer useful information such as the title, author and a summary of what the site is about.
Links on the web often drop you right in the middle of a site rather than the home page. This can sometimes make it difficult to work out where you are. It is good practice to look at the home page of a site before you use it, just to ascertain exactly what it is you are looking at. URLs can help with this - the root of a URL will often take you to the home page. It won't always work - but try deleting the file names and directory names on the right of the URL and then hit the return key. This should take you to the home page of the site. For example:
The Church of England web site
| http://www.cofe.anglican.org/lifeevents/funerals/ | A page deep within the site |
| http://www.cofe.anglican.org/ | The home page |
This can be especially useful when you are looking at search engine results, which often take you deep within web sites rather than to the home pages.
