How to Type a URL Into a Browser

Series Summary

Computers are complex machines built upon very simple principles. They perform arithmetical operations millions of times over to transform digital information, moving at lightning speed, into usable human data. A personal computer's job is to help a user create, manipulate, deliver, receive or delete media content. This is a simple, sterile definition that sounds uninteresting on the surface. Nevertheless, these fundamental functions mimic human ability in some surprising ways. Therefore, the computer is increasingly becoming an engine of the imagination, a platform for the digital life. The computer’s basic functionality is behind the growing demand for improved home computing capability. It has driven much of the computer industry to continually construct hardware and software systems that can meet and exceed the expectations of the computer user, whose wants are manifold and myriad. In this free internet web browser training video series, learn how to use some of Internet Explorer’s many helpful functions including bookmarks, the history feature, the search bar, Google and other important features such as Quicktime and Gmail. Our expert will show you how to clear your internet browser history, use the content advisor, enable cookies, set a default homepage, and manage many other web browser features. Take this Windows internet browser tutorial today!

Video Transcript

"Hello. My name is Luis Estrada and I am a software developer. In this video, I'll show you how to type a URL into a browser. For this example, I'm using the Internet Explorer web browser. Internet Explorer is a registered trademark of Microsoft and I have no affiliation with Microsoft. The first thing that you need to know when using a web browser, is how to correctly type a URL in the address bar of the web browser. URL stands for Uniform Resource Locater, but it is most commonly called an Internet address. When you specify an Internet address, you are telling the browser what kind of information you want to reach, whether it is a picture, a movie, access to a remote computer, a web page or a website that holds multiple web pages. Most of the times, what you type in the address bar is the location of a web site. For example the address http://www.youtube.com, is the correct address that we should write in the browser in order to get the Youtube video site. However, since the majority of addresses typed are websites, you can skip the http part. What http is telling your browser, is the communication protocol used between your computer and the computer that hosts the website. Then you have the www that refers to the World Wide Web, which is the collection of web pages available on the Internet. If the website that you want to reach uses the standard practice of specifying a www folder that holds all its web pages, you may skip this part too. In this example, if you write just youtube.com and hit Enter, then you get to the same website. The youtube.com part of the address is called a domain name. Most of the times you get to the desired website by just typing the domain name, like yahoo.com, or google.com. However, there are cases when, by using the domain name only, you will not reach the desired website. In that case, try placing the www. before the domain name. I'm Luis Estrada and I've just shown you how to use your web browser."