Addresses

Web addresses are the key to visiting a website.

The technical name for a web address is the URL. URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator.

Most people just call them web addresses, and they look a little something like this: www.bbc.co.uk/webwise

What can an address tell us?

Every website on the internet has an address.

The address may look a little strange, but as we are about to find out, each part of the address can tell us a little piece of information about the website.

Information such as which country the website comes from, what kind of organisation runs the site, the name of the site, and the fact it's on the world wide web.

The Country Code

The end part of the address can tell you which country the website is in.

For example, web addresses ending in .uk are from the United Kingdom; those ending in .nz are from New Zealand; those ending in .cl from Chile, and so on.

The country code for the BBC website is .co.uk which tells you that the BBC is based in the United Kingdom.

The Organisation code

The part of the web address just before the country code tells you what type of organisation runs the website.

For example, an address ending in .ac.uk tells us that the website is from an academic organisation in the UK such as a university or school.

Other endings you might come across include .org.uk for non-profit organisations such as charities or foundations; .gov.uk for government-related organisations such as the Number Ten website; and .co.uk for regular companies who run a website.

This organisation code in the address tells you what sort of organisation runs the website.

The website name

Every website has a name.

This is normally just the organisation's name, but it might be a different or shortened version of the name.

The middle part of a web address (before the country and organisation codes) will usually include the name of the site.

For example, the name of the Victoria and Albert Museum is shortened to the website name www.vam.ac.uk. Whereas the .Net Internet Magazine website has been changed to www.netmag.co.uk.

Some websites have totally different names such as the National Express Coaches' site which is called www.GobyCoach.com.

Organisations use shorter names in their web addresses because they are easier to remember and much easier to type.

The home of the internet

You may have noticed that a lot of web addresses don't have a country code - they just end in .com, .org, .edu or .gov.

These websites are based in America - the place where the internet started - so they don't have to add the country code.

All they have are the organisation codes, which stand for the same things - .com for company, .org for non-profit organisation and so on.

Non-American .coms

Lots of websites outside the USA also use .com as their organisation code.

This is because .com addresses are shorter and very easy to remember.

So don't be surprised if you see UK websites with addresses that end like www.bbc.com.

What each part of the address means

Each part of a web address gives a different bit of information to your browser.

An address for the BBC EastEnders website www.bbc.co.uk/eastenders/index.shtml provides four different pieces of information to a browser.

The www. tells the browser it's on the web; the bbc.co.uk is the server the browser must visit; the eastenders part is the name of the folder on that server; and the index.shtml is the name of the file within that folder.

Don't forget the punctuation!

You may have noticed how important punctuation is in web addresses.

You must include all the full stops and forward slashes exactly right or you won't go to the right web address.

The 'www' stands for the world wide web. The full stops between each part of the address are read aloud as 'dots'.

And always make sure you type forward slashes and not back ones.

Web links

When you move your mouse over a web page you may notice that your pointer changes to a hand over some of the text or images.

This is because that text or image is a link to another page.

The easiest way to check if something is a link is to move the pointer over it. If it changes to a hand you have found a link and can click on it.

On most occasions a text link will be underlined or a different colour - but not always.

Pictures, photos and buttons can also be links, so look out for them.

What do links do?

You move from one web page to another by clicking on links.

Links can lead you to web pages on the same site, or outside to web pages on totally different websites.

If you have clicked on a link and return to the page you visited from, the link will often have changed colour.

This often happens to links you have visited to help you remember where you have been on a site.