We have houses with home addresses on the street, and we have shops in shopping mall with their various shop numbers or ID; they direct us to the specific house or shop we want to go. So also, web addresses take us straight to our desired websites holding on to the fact that they are buildings as explained in the previous post. For example, www.slnconline.com.ng/store directs you to the store’s web page on this website where you can purchase and order for different materials. But typing just www.slnconline.com.ng into the web browser will only take you to the home page.

Every website has a unique web address or URL (uniform resource locator). This serves as a source to a web or online resources that defines their location on a computer network and a system of retrieving such resources. It also helps to identify and locate the exact type or version of a particular website a user is requesting through the web browser, and ensures that it’s displayed accordingly. This is because the web browser will know and understand which web server to talk to, to fetch and display the requested web resources. For instance, when the address: m.twitter.com is typed into the web browser, it fetches and displays the mobile version of the twitter website instead of the PC version regardless the device in use. Basically, web addresses are made up of three parts which include:

1. Protocol which is used by the web browser and web server for talking to each other (http and https). This part is usually autofill by the web browser being the default transfer protocol for web pages.
2. Web server name: this is the main name of the site usually ends with the domain name e.g. www.google.com, http://slnconline.com.ng, https://blindhelp.net, unilag.edu.ng, Hadley.edu, m.facebook.com, wordpress.org and so on.
3. Resource path or location on the server: this points directly to where the requested resources is located on the web server. It usually begins with slash e.g. www.blindhelp.net/software (takes you to the software page on the Blind Help website.), billy.com/resources/audio/football (takes you to the football page on the Billy’s website.)

Please note:

• When a web address is typed into the web browser without a path, it loads the home page of that website e.g. slnconline.com.ng, blindhelp.net.
• Web addresses are typed or copy and paste into the address bar of a web browser. You are to press the keystroke CONTROL+L to navigate there after opening your web browser. Then, you press the ENTER key after typing or pasting the web address into the browser.
• It’s not mandatory to begin your web address with www. Either you add it or not, the website will still open for you.