What character string does a web browser use to find a webpage?

A web browser uses a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) to find a webpage. The URL serves as the specific address that directs the browser to a particular resource on the internet. It provides all the necessary information about the protocol (such as HTTP or HTTPS), the domain name, and sometimes the path to the resource, along with any query parameters.

When a user enters a URL into the browser’s address bar, the browser parses this string to locate and retrieve the corresponding webpage from a server. This process involves resolving the domain part of the URL into an IP address, allowing the browser to make a request to that server.

In contrast, while an IP address is integral to network communication, it is not the string that users typically utilize to access webpages; they interact with URLs instead. HTML is the markup language used to create and structure content on the webpage, rather than a method for locating it. DNS (Domain Name System) is a fundamental service that translates domain names into IP addresses, enabling browsers to locate websites based on the URL, but it does so behind the scenes after the URL has been entered.