Using website addresses and bookmarks

Getting started

The first part – http:// or https:// - tells the web browser how to use the information that follows.

Fortunately you don't need to remember to enter this, as your web browser will automatically add it for you.

The www

www stands for World Wide Web and tells the browser that you've entered a website address.

The website name

The next part is the main bit of the website name. It should match the name of a company, product or service represented by the website.

The letters at the end

There are so many websites that we'd soon run out of possible names without a way to split them up further. The letters at the end help do that.

There are lots of different letter combinations you might see at the end of a website address, one of the most common is .com.

The address bar

If you already know the address of a website you don't need to use a search engine. You can simply type the website address into the address bar of your browser.

Remember, you don't need to enter the https:// part of the address as the browser adds this automatically.

The ABC's website has the letters .net.au after its name, so if you wanted to go to the ABC's website, you would type www.abc.net.au in the address bar.

Selecting the address bar

First, we click anywhere inside the address bar.

Typing the new address

Next, we need to delete the existing website address and type the address of The National Library of Australia website, www.nla.gov.au, into the address bar.

We then press the Enter key.

Success

Finally, The National Library of Australia website opens.

Notice that we don't need to include https:// as this was automatically added when the website opened.

Typing in a website address is quicker than searching for it on a search engine. But opening a website would be even quicker if we didn't have to type the address every time. That's where bookmarks can help.

Bookmarks

Bookmarking web pages is just like bookmarking a page in a book - it helps you find the page you want quickly in future.

Different browsers have different names for bookmarks. For example, Chrome and Firefox call them Bookmarks but Microsoft Edge calls them Favourites. They all mean the same thing and work the same way.

Adding a bookmark

Let's go through the steps for adding a bookmark for the ABC website.

First, we type in www.abc.net.au into the browser's address bar to open the ABC's website.

Next, look for the Bookmark symbol, usually a star, which in this example is in the far right corner of the address bar. Click on it once to select it.

Confirming the name

By default, bookmarks are saved to the Bookmarks Bar so that they can be found quickly later.

We can enter a name for the bookmark or keep the suggested one. In this case let's keep Welcome to ABC.net.au.

Finally, click on the Done button to save the bookmark.

The saved bookmark

After we have saved the bookmark we can see a link for the website in the Bookmark Bar, which is found just below the address bar on the browser page.

The next time we want to open the ABC website, we can click on this link to go straight to there without needing to enter the address.

Well done.

You've completed the Using website addresses and bookmarks activity.

You've found out how to open a website using the address bar and use bookmarks to save your favourite websites for quick access later.

In the next activity, Searching websites, you'll find out how to look for something on a specific website.