3. Browsers

3.3. URLs

To find pages on the Web, it must have a unique web address or URL.  A web address will look like the following:

URL

If you were to type in this address and hit enter, you would be taken to the main page of Amazon® books.  From there you can search around their website for other pages of information from Amazon®.  If you want to go directly to another page within Amazon® such as their page that contains information about gift cards, the web address or URL will get longer as it directs you to the correct page and provides information to the website owner about where you are looking.

https://www.amazon.com/b/ref=gc_surl_giftcards?node=3063530011

Complicated URLs such as this one are difficult to type correctly.  If you think you may wish to visit this page again, your browser will allow you to bookmark or save the URL as a link. 

In Internet Explorer®, you will see a star icon in the right top corner of the window.  Favourites icon Click on this icon, go to Favorites and choose "Add to Favorites". 

The computer will automatically select the name of the page you are on and hyperlink the URL to it.  When you open the browser next time (from the same computer), you can go to the Favorites section to find the link to take you directly to the page. 

If you have a lot of links in your Favourites section, you can create sub-folders to help with organization.  In other browsers, Favorites may be called Bookmarks but are also located in the top toolbar and work in the same way.

Note:  Modern browsers don't always show the "http" protocol part of the link.  You can type in www.amazon.com and the browser will automatically add the "http://" portion.  Another protocol "https" is a more secure link and is often found on sites that do financial transactions or provide access to sensitive data.