The first portion of the URL (http) designates the protocol that is used to locate the file or resource on the Web. A protocol is a standardized means of communication among machines across a network. Protocols allow data to be taken apart for faster transmission, transmitted, and then reassembled at the destination in the correct order.
http
The first part of the URL is called the 'domain', ie. wiki.answers.com or www.google.comUnless you are refering to the protocol part, which is the http:// or https://
Protocol
protocol
Protocol!
The protocol used for web-browsing is the Hypertext Transfer Protocol, otherwise known as HTTP. The secure version of HTTP is Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol, otherwise knows as HTTPS.
When you type http://www.wiki.answers.com that is an URL, the first part "htpp://" identifies the protocol, used to fetch the webpage, and the second part www.wiki.answers.com points it's domain name.
The domain is the most important part of a URL as it identifies the specific website you are accessing on the internet. It is located between the protocol (e.g., "https://") and the path (e.g., "/page").
txt is a type of file format. The URL tells the computer what protocol to use to open that file. When you're on the internet, the preferred URL is http, or hypertext transfer protocol.
A protocol prefix is commonly referred to as a "scheme." It identifies the protocol used in a URL, such as "http://" or "https://".
hypertext transfer protocol
Uniform Resource Locator URL is a protocol for specifying addresses on the internet.