#WWW #NSM #W3C In W3C ([[World Wide Web Consortium]]) terms, a [[Universal Resource Identifier]] ([[Universal Resource Identifier|URI]]) is a string of characters that identifies a unique resource on the internet. It is a broader concept that encompasses both Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) and [[Uniform Resource Name|Uniform Resource Names]] ([[URN|URNs]]). A URL, on the other hand, is a specific type of URI that provides the means to locate and access a resource on the web. It includes the protocol (such as HTTP or FTP), domain name or IP address, and optionally, the path to the specific resource. So, in W3C terms, URLs are a subset of URIs. All URLs are URIs, but not all URIs are necessarily URLs.