What does URL stand for?

URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator. A URL is an address that identifies a resource on a network and specifies how that resource can be retrieved.

For example, in https://www.example.com/index.html, https is the scheme, www.example.com is the host, and /index.html identifies the path. A browser uses these parts to locate the server and request the resource. URLs can also include a port, query parameters, and a fragment identifying a location within a page.

The term is often used interchangeably with web address, but URLs are more specific than ordinary descriptions of a site. A URL includes an access mechanism such as HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, or mailto. “Universal Resource Locator” and “Uniform Resource Link” are common-sounding but incorrect expansions.

URL terminology comes from the early architecture of the World Wide Web. Tim Berners-Lee and the IETF’s URI working group defined the URL concept in 1994. Technically, a URL is a type of Uniform Resource Identifier, or URI.