Legal Definitions - Uniform Resource Locator (URL)

A Uniform Resource Locator, commonly known as a URL, is the unique address that identifies a specific resource on the internet. It acts like a digital street address, telling your web browser exactly where to find a particular webpage, image, document, or other piece of information and how to access it.

Here are some examples illustrating how URLs function:

• Imagine you want to read a specific government report on environmental policy. The URL might look like this: https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-us-greenhouse-gas-emissions. This URL precisely directs your browser to a particular report on the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) website, detailing climate change indicators and greenhouse gas emissions. It specifies the secure connection protocol (https), the domain (epa.gov), and the exact path to that specific document.

• If you're looking for a particular recipe on a cooking blog, you might use a URL such as: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/212634/classic-chocolate-chip-cookies/. This address guides your browser directly to the "Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies" recipe page on the Allrecipes website. The URL includes the website's domain and a unique identifier for that specific recipe, ensuring you land on the correct page without having to search through the entire site.

• Consider a situation where a university wants to provide direct access to its academic calendar. The URL could be: https://www.universityname.edu/academics/calendar.pdf. In this case, the URL points directly to a downloadable PDF file containing the academic calendar on the university's official website. This demonstrates that URLs can specify the location of various file types, not just standard webpages, and instruct the browser to retrieve that specific file.