Examples of Top-Level Domains and URLs of Web Sites

Notice how some URLs end in .com. That last part of the URL is called the top-level domain (TLD). Web sites that end in .com are commercial (business) Web sites. There are other types of sites as well; the most common top-level domains, their meaning, and examples are shown in Table below.

Notice that I don't have the http:// in front of the example URLs in Table above. You rarely see the http:// used at the front of a URL. Typically, you just see them expressed as www.microsoft.com or www.ebay.com. That's because virtually all public, nonsecured Web pages use http:// as the protocol. In fact, when you type a URL into your Web browser's address bar and leave off the http:// part, the browser just fills it in for you and makes the connection.

All Web browsers work the same way. You type a URL into the address bar and press Enter or click Go. That sends a packet of information off to your ISP (Internet service provider), which in turn routes it to the Internet. After traversing the Internet, the packet arrives at the Web server as a request that means ''Hey, send me your Web page.'' The Web browser dutifully responds by sending out the requested page, which makes its way back to your ISP and then to your PC. You see the results as a Web page in your Web browser. Figure below illustrates the basic idea.

Remember, the Web contains billions of pages. You can access any one of them with any Web browser and any type of Internet connection. It doesn't matter who your ISP is or what Web browser you're using.

The time it takes from when you first make the request for a page and when you actually see the page depends on the speed of your Internet connection. It's usually only a matter of seconds. With really fast Internet connections, it might seem like no time at all.