Webadresse

A webadresse, or web address, is a string used to identify and locate resources on the World Wide Web. In technical terms, most commonly it is a URL, or Uniform Resource Locator, which specifies how to retrieve a resource over a network.

A URL consists of several components: a scheme such as http or https, an authority that includes the host (domain name or IP address) and optionally a port, a path that identifies a resource on the host, and optional query and fragment components that refine the request. The host part is translated to an IP address by the Domain Name System (DNS).

There are absolute URLs, which provide all information needed to access a resource, and relative URLs, which depend on a base URL. For example, https://www.example.org/path?query=1#section is an absolute URL; /path is a relative URL.

Historically, URLs were standardized to enable linking and retrieval on the Web. The concept originated with the early Web and was refined in standards such as RFC 1738 and RFC 3986. Today, the terms URL and URI are related but have distinct technical meanings: a URL is a type of URI that includes a means of locating a resource.

In everyday use, web addresses are transmitted and entered into browsers to initiate requests. Securing communication with HTTPS encrypts the payload and confirms the destination, reducing risks such as eavesdropping and tampering. Users should recognize phishing risks associated with deceptive URLs and be mindful of URL encodings and redirections. In German, the term Webadresse is commonly used and is often treated as synonymous with URL, though technically the precise terms are URL (Uniform Resource Locator) and URI (Uniform Resource Identifier).