URL

in English: Uniform Resource Locator (URL)

basicwidespread

A URL is the precise address of things accessible on the internet—web pages, images, files, services—which you see in the browser's address bar and which links point to.

In plain terms

A URL is like a postal address on the internet. Just as a letter needs the country, city, street and house number, the browser must know on which machine and exactly where within it the item you requested is located. The URL describes this in a single line.

Not only web pages have URLs: images, downloadable PDFs, videos, or data services for programs (APIs) do too. When you click a link, you are actually passing a URL to your browser.

In the age of AI agents, the role of the URL has grown. When an agent searches the web, reads pages, or calls a service, it works with URLs just as you do, only much faster and mostly hidden from your view. Therefore, it matters what address it opens on your behalf.

How it works

The protocol appears at the beginning of the URL, for example https://. This tells the browser which rules to use when communicating with the server. https indicates an encrypted connection.
Next comes the domain name (e.g., hu.wikipedia.org), which identifies the server. Behind the scenes, the DNS system translates this into a numeric IP address.
The part after the domain is the path (for example, /wiki/URL). It specifies which page or file you are requesting within the server.
Parameters after the question mark carry supplementary data, such as the search term or which ad you came from. The part after the hash (#) jumps to a specific location within the page. The browser does not send this part to the server.
The browser or agent sends the request based on the address. The server returns the content, which appears on the screen or is incorporated into the agent's work.

An everyday example

You get an SMS saying your package could not be delivered, with a link to click. If you check the address and the domain is not the courier's official one but a strange, unknown name, or the company name appears only at the start of the address as a subdomain, the URL tells you it is a scam before you enter any details.

Who is affected

everyoneReading the URL is the simplest defense against phishing scams because the address reveals whose site you are actually on.

bank customer, investorFake banking sites can look indistinguishable from the real ones, but the domain name in the address bar will not match your bank's. → Money

marketerTracking parameters added to the URL make it possible to measure which campaign or advertisement a visitor came from. → Marketing

developerAPI endpoints, agent tools, and web resources are all accessible via URLs, so correct construction and verification are fundamental requirements. → Code

A common misconception

MythIf there is a padlock in the address bar and the address starts with https, the site is trustworthy.

In realityHTTPS only guarantees that the connection is encrypted and that you are connected to the domain shown in the address bar. It does not guarantee that the site operator is honest. Most scam sites also use HTTPS, which is why you must check the domain name. Chrome has not shown a padlock since 2023, precisely due to this misunderstanding.

Limits and risks

The URL can be deceptive. Scammers imitate known addresses using similar-looking letters, typos, or long subdomains. Who owns the page is revealed by the end of the part before the first slash after the protocol. In the address bank.hu.csalo.example, for instance, csalo.example is the real domain, not bank.hu. If an @ sign appears in this part, the text before it does not count, because the browser goes to the address after it. The address [email protected] also leads to the csalo.example page.
Shortened links (for example, bit.ly) hide the true destination, so you cannot see where they lead before clicking.
URLs become obsolete. If a page is moved or deleted, the old address returns an error. This is called link rot.
Language models sometimes invent plausible but non-existent URLs. An agent can also be diverted by hidden instructions on a malicious site. Therefore, always verify addresses received from AI.

Similar, but not the same

domain name – The domain name is only the server name (for example, wikipedia.org). The URL is the full address, including protocol, path, and parameters.
URI – URI is the broader term: it means any resource identifier. URL is the type that also specifies where and how the resource is accessible.
IP address – An IP address is a computer's numeric network address. The URL usually contains the host name, and it also specifies the exact location within the machine.

Related concepts

Broader

World Wide Web, Internet, URI

Narrower

Shortened link

On the edge

domain name, query parameter, HTTP, HTTPS, DNS, API, Phishing

A brief history

The URL was born with the World Wide Web, which Tim Berners-Lee developed at CERN between 1989 and 1991. Its official description was published in December 1994 under RFC 1738. The general syntax still valid today was fixed in the 2005 RFC 3986. Browser practices are described by the WHATWG URL standard.

Where things stand

The URL is an indispensable foundation of the web, used by billions of people daily. By the end of 2026, the novelty is that AI agents increasingly open and follow URLs on behalf of people, raising new security questions.

Status: 2026 November

In the news

Appears in 137 Agent Age stories; the curve shows weekly occurrence in the news magazine.

AI and Hungarian graduates: junior positions are shrinkingNov 8, 2026 · Code
DIMSZ, the Hungarian data-driven marketing association, continues with a new boardNov 7, 2026 · Marketing
SK Biopharmaceuticals builds large AI dataset for drug discovery as GaiaBT ties AI to lab validationNov 6, 2026 · Health
The Trade Desk and Dstillery link AI agents to reshape audiences mid-campaignNov 4, 2026 · Marketing
Oxford University Press links its content to ChatGPT Edu in three-month pilotNov 4, 2026 · Education & Family
One in five young Australians turns to AI for financial advice, and many act without checkingNov 4, 2026 · Money
Study of 3,011 FDA warning letters finds seven citing AI, including earliest CDER letterNov 4, 2026 · Health
Perplexity agent links Shopify sales to Meta and Klaviyo campaigns; company claims 3.5x revenueNov 3, 2026 · Marketing

Also known as

URL · web address · web address · link · reference · uniform resource locator · Uniform Resource Locator · web address

Sources

This entry was machine-edited and has undergone machine expert review; the “In the news” section updates automatically from Agent Age stories.