URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator which is techie talk for an address for a web page.

Just like street addresses are used to find buildings, web addresses are used to find web pages.

So, if you type in www.bbc.co.uk/askbruce you'll come here!

Web addresses

When you use the internet and the web you will come across URLs like the one shown here, www.bbc.co.uk/becomingwebwise.

This is the website address for our online course Becoming WebWise.

Every different file on the internet (such as a web page) needs an address so that it can be found by programs. How do you go about calling up a specific page? First of all you have to know the location of a page.

Not in a geographic sense, but in terms of its URL or address. The URL has a number of parts and if it's correctly typed in full into the address or location box before you press 'enter', the browser will know how to find it.