URLachtige

URLachtige is a Dutch term used in information technology to describe strings that resemble URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) but may not be valid URLs as defined by standards. The prefix URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator, and the suffix -achtige means “like” or “similar to,” yielding the sense of a URL-like pattern.

Typically, URLachtige sequences include elements that look like a scheme (such as http or https), a host or domain, and may include a path, query, or fragment. However, they can omit elements or use informal spellings, such as www.example.com, example.org/path, or ftp.example.net. They can appear in natural text, source code, data fields, or user input.

Detecting URLachtige patterns is important for hyperlinking, text processing, data extraction, phishing detection, and content moderation. Techniques used to identify them include regular expressions tuned to URL syntax, heuristic rules, and, when higher precision is needed, URL parsers that validate components against standards.

Challenges arise from false positives and negatives, punctuation or multilingual text that can mimic URL structures, internationalized domain names and punycode, obfuscated or mixed-encoding strings, and edge cases involving unusual schemes or creative separators.

See also: URL, URI, hyperlink, phishing detection, text analysis. Etymology: Dutch, combining URL with the suffix -achtige meaning “like.”