Note: The official guide itself indicates that you should “use URI rather than URLs” to describe web addresses, but it hasn’t been updated since 2005 so it’s a little bit behind the times.

To distinguish between actual links to online resources and the IDs of physical products, web links are typically referred to as URLs rather than URIs. urn:isbn:12312341234 is a URN (Uniform Resource Name) which only specifies a name with no way to access the resource.Īll of these formats fall under the larger URI umbrella, which covers both URLs and URNs.mailto: is also a URL due to the mailto protocol but used for sending emails, not accessing a webpage or other resource.is a URL, as it specifies the HTTPS protocol and full location of the page.It can be a unique name ID, the “location” (or network access point) of the resource, or both (which is what’s referred to as a URL). “A Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) is a compact sequence of characters that identifies an abstract or physical resource.” It’s a higher level category of identifiers that also includes URL as one of its subcategories.Īccording to the official RFC 3986 specifications: URIĪ URI (or a Uniform Resource Identifier) is different from a URL in that it refers to the unique ID of a file or resource, but not necessarily the means through which you can access it. Your browser takes the address, translates the domain name to the IP address of the server, and the rest of the URL shows the path to the specific file on that server.Ī URL leads to a specific file or page, while a domain name is the general “address” to the whole website or server.

A URL, or uniform resource locator, is an address that helps your web browser locate a specific webpage, picture, file, or other resource.

Rss url meaning