Uniform Resource Identifier

What Does Uniform Resource Identifier Mean?

A uniform resource identifier (URI) is a strings of characters used to identify names or resources on the Internet. The URI describes the mechanism used to access resources, the computers on which resources are housed and the names of the resources on each computer.

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Techopedia Explains Uniform Resource Identifier

URIs can be classified as uniform resource locators (URLs) or uniform resource names (URNs) or both. The URL specifies the method used to obtain a representation either through the description of the primary access mechanism or through the network location. The URN identifies a resource by name in a particular namespace.

URI identification enables interaction with the resource representation over networks using specific protocols. For instance, the URI: http://www.w3.org/Icons/WWW/w3c_main.gif identifies an image file (.gif) accessed via Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) on a computer housed at the www.w3.org domain.

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Margaret Rouse

Margaret Rouse is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical, business audience. Over the past twenty years her explanations have appeared on TechTarget websites and she's been cited as an authority in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine and Discovery Magazine.Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages. If you have a suggestion for a new definition or how to improve a technical explanation, please email Margaret or contact her…