Let’s start with a simple example, a YouTube URL. Use the color coding to help coordinate with the explanations.

The head bone’s connected to the neck bone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBJ7mBxi8LM&list=FLjtfXY-PoLnBtJTrAVIHR3A&index=5

Protocol – http://

Subdomain – www.

Domain – youtube.com/

Path to file – watch

Query string – ?v=DBJ7mBxi8LM&list=FLjtfXY-PoLnBtJTrAVIHR3A&index=5
This is where a URL can start looking complicated, but it actually isn’t. We have here a collection of name/value pairs. It’s merely a way to pass specific information to this page. The names and values can be anything at all, vary from site to site and even page to page within a site. Think of it as the browser asking (or querying) “What about the details?” and the Internet responds with a long string of characters.

So we look for patterns. In the query string you’ll notice a question mark (?) at the beginning and the regular occurrence of ampersands (&) and equal signs (=) within. Let’s split it up with that in mind.

The spinal vertebrae’s connected to the … other spinal vertebrae.

?v=DBJ7mBxi8LM&list=FLjtfXY-PoLnBtJTrAVIHR3A&index=5

? – Start
Says “hey, from here on is a query string”

Name/Value Pairs
v=DBJ7mBxi8LM
list=FLjtfXY-PoLnBtJTrAVIHR3A
index=5

Since every site can make their own names and values, figuring out what they do is often a guessing game. But often it’s not too difficult. In this example, v is for video, and the value is the video’s unique identifying code; list is for playlist, and the value is the unique identifying code for the playlist, which tells the page to show the rest of the playlist; index is where this video is in the playlist, in this case, the fifth. Name/value pairs are separated by the ampersand symbol (&).

Now you’re ready for surgical operation

Use your newfound knowledge of the query string to chop up URLs and see what happens! I like to shorten URLs before sharing them. Here are a few examples I’ve used in the past:

From:
https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=font+icons&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

To:
https://www.google.com/search?q=font+icons

From:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=62+4th+St+NW,+Winter+Haven,+FL&hl=en&sll=27.698638,-83.804601&sspn=22.576023,34.453125&oq=62+4th+st+nw,+&hnear=62+4th+St+NW,+Winter+Haven,+Florida+33881&t=m&z=17

To:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=62+4th+St+NW,+Winter+Haven,+FL

From:
http://www.cars.com/go/search/detail.jsp?tracktype=usedcc&csDlId=&csDgId=&listingId=127450118&listingRecNum=6&criteria=sf1Dir%3DDESC%26stkTyp%3DU%26bsId%3D20202%26rd%3D50%26crSrtFlds%3DstkTypId-feedSegId-cpoId-bsId%26zc%3D33881%26rn%3D0%26PMmt%3D0-0-0%26stkTypId%3D28881%26sf2Dir%3DASC%26sf1Nm%3Dprice%26cpo%3DY%26cpoId%3D28444%26sf2Nm%3Dmiles%26isDealerGrouping%3Dfalse%26rpp%3D50%26feedSegId%3D28705&aff=national&listType=1

To:
http://www.cars.com/go/search/detail.jsp?listingId=127450118