Internet Addresses

First let's look at the location/address area at the top of your Internet page. Assuming that you are using a standard personal computer (or a networked version) you are probably looking at a Microsoft Internet Explorer or a Mozilla-based (e.g. Firefox) page right now. Internet Explorer and Firefox are browsers. The blank field is termed 'address' on Internet Explorer and 'location' on some other browsers. Different browsers may be used on other systems but the principles are similar. 

Basic website addresses look like this:

http://www.hrmguide.net

http://www.hrmguide.com

http://www.hrmguide.co.uk

If you type any of these into the location/address field and press 'enter' on your keyboard (or double-click after the address with your mouse) you will get to the index or 'home page' of each site. An address of this kind is also called a URL (Universal Resource Locator).

But you have to type these addresses EXACTLY including http:// (if your browser does not do this automatically). Otherwise you are likely to get an error message - or a completely different website. Some websites are able to respond without the www - but not all.

So - if you see a website referred to in a book or magazine as:

www.zzxxbbz.com

just convert this to:

http://www.zzxxbbz.com

to reach the site.

In this series

Introduction

Down to basics

Website addresses

Page addresses

Link lists

HR and onsite searching

Website organization