Address bar

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(Redirected from URL bar)

An address bar (also location bar or URL bar) is a widget in a graphical user interface web browser that indicates the current or desired URL, webpage address, or path to a local file or other item currently being shown by the browser or that the user wishes to be shown. A new page can be viewed by typing its URL into the address bar and pressing the Enter key. A similar feature is found in Windows Explorer.

In most browsers, the address being typed can often be auto-completed, either by looking up similar URLs from the history or by using keyboard shortcut for URL completion.

[edit] Features

For websites which use favicon (a small icon that represents the website), there will also be a small icon in the address bar.
The address bar is also used, in some web browsers, to indicate the security status of the web page. Various colors and padlock icons show if the page is encrypted and how trustworthy the communication is.
In Opera, the address bar can double as a progress bar that indicates how much of the content of the page has been loaded. This feature was first introduced with Safari, but current versions of the browser no longer exhibit this behaviour.
It can also be used to detect web feeds that can be used to subscribe to pages. Normally indicated by the RSS icon "".
It is able to present an Universal edit button "" with an extension for the Mozilla Firefox for editable homepages, e.g. Wikis.
The Opera browser is also a Widget engine and provides the opportunity for pages to spread their widget by an extra icon "".
In Google Chrome, the address bar (or Omnibox) doubles as a search plugin bar which pulls incremental returns for typed phrases or letter combinations from Google Suggest's pre-emptive search. A Firefox addon which duplicates this functionality is available^[1].
Quick searches can, in some browsers, be done by entering the search terms instead of an address. Further a feature known as "keywords" can be used to search specific sites or to quickly get to a bookmarked page. For example with the keyword "w" associated with the Wikipedia search-box you could quickly find an article about cake by entering "w cake" as the address.

[edit] Address bar implementations

The following sections compare address bar widgets for a few well-known web browsers.

[edit] Firefox

Firefox's address bar when visiting Wikipedia

Firefox's address bar when visiting Wikipedia secure

Firefox 3beta5's address bar when visiting Paypal which uses a Extended Validation Certificate

[edit] Opera

Opera's address bar when visiting Wikipedia

Opera's address bar when visiting Wikipedia secure

[edit] Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer 8's address bar when visiting Wikipedia

Internet Explorer 8's address bar when visiting a secure site (Wikipedia secure, not displaying nonsecure items) that does not have an Extended Validation Certificate