TABLE OF CONTENTS

• What is a URL?
• Components of URL
• Example of URL
• The maximum length of the URL
• Maximum URL length in different browser
• Factors affecting the length of URLs
• URL Shortening

What is a URL?

Let’s take an example and understand this. Imagine you have to go to your friend’s home, for this, you need her home address to get there. Similarly, Websites have addresses too. And we need them to visit any webpage or resource on the internet. These addresses are called URLs of a website. URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator. It is a special code that tells us the location of a specific webpage. They are used for file transfer, email, etc.

Components of a URL

URL has two components.

1. Protocol Identifiers: "http://" or "https://" tells us how to connect with the website.
2. Domain Name: It is like the name of your friend’s house. It is a unique name that identifies the website you want to visit. For example google.com

When you search a URL in your web browser, it understands the address and redirects you to the webpage where you want to go. URLs help you explore the internet.

Example of a URL

Let’s understand the anatomy of URLs through this example:

github.com

• The protocol in this URL is HTTPS, which means that the webpage is redirected to a secure and safe connection. The domain name is github.com, which is the address of the GitHub website.
• '/’ tells about the path, which means that you are visiting the GitHub homepage.
• If it is github.com/user: It means you are visiting the user profile page on GitHub.

Maximum Length of a URL

The maximum length of URLs in different browsers and web servers varies and depends on various factors. Generally, most browsers have a maximum length of around 2000 characters. The maximum length of a URL is necessary because it affects how long the URL is displayed in the address bar of the browser. Some webpages like Safari and Apache throw an error message after crossing the limit if a URL is too long. It prevents us from accessing the webpage.

MAXIMUM LENGTH OF URLS IN DIFFERENT BROWSERS

• Google Chrome allows URLs with a maximum length of 2,097,152 characters.
• Microsoft Edge allows URLs of a maximum length of 2083 characters.
• Opera allows unlimited URL length.
• Mozilla Firefox URLs' maximum length can be up to 65,536 characters.
• Safari allows URLs of a maximum length of 80,000 characters.
• Apache allows URL length to be a maximum of 4000 characters.

Factors Affecting Maximum Length of a URL

Browers have a specific limit for the length of a URL, which the user can enter into the browser. Other various factors can affect the length of the URLs.

1. Web Server Limitations: Web servers that host websites and webpages for users are limited to URL maximum length. Even if a browser allows a longer URL, the server might truncate or reject the URL based on its limitations and settings.
2. Encoding and Special Characters: URLs contain special characters like symbols, spaces, and non-ASCII characters. To add these characters in a URL, encoding is used. It replaces them with specific codes. These encoded characters can increase the length of the URL because they occupy more space and take up more characters than the original. Browsers and servers also consider encoded characters for determining the URL length.

URL Shortening

URLs include a lot of information, such as the path to a specific file. This can make a URL very long and complex, especially if they use special characters or unusual formatting. This can make them difficult to parse and understandable. To ensure better usability, readability, and compatibility, URLs should be kept concise, clean, and meaningful. Long, complex URLs are challenging to read and share with others. This makes it difficult for users to find and access the resources they need. They occupy a lot of space. Short URLs are compatible with a wider range of systems and web applications.

Here are some ways to keep the URLs short:

1. Use a short domain name if possible.
2. Keep the path to the specific page short.
3. Avoid using special characters in the URL.
4. Use a URL shortener service. This is the most effective way. We will discuss it further.

It is important to consider practical implications and web server configuration. Well-designed URLs are easy to transmit to the internet and easy to access. When dealing with long URLs that exceed the browser limits or are complex, not readable, and accessible then using URL shortening services can be an effective solution. Through these services, clean and concise alternative URLs can be generated, that redirect to the same webpage, which the original URL used to do. This approach is used by various website developers, online marketers, social media users, etc. This approach is helpful for sharing URLs in limited space such as email, text messages, LinkedIn messages, etc where there is a word limit.

So in conclusion, URLs are like magic, which lets us explore and excess the resources on the Internet.