The Internet Explorer Blog explains: http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2005/08/15/452006.aspx
Did you know that:
A URI consists of multiple components, each of which helps the browser and server to retrieve the requested file.
For example, given the URI http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=ie7#listings
- The scheme component is http
- The hostname component is search.msn.com
- The path component is /results.aspx
- The query component is q=ie7
- The fragment component is listings
The following URIs are all equivalent:
- http://www.example.com/sample/
- http://www.EXAMPLE.com/sample/#
- Http://www.ex%41mple.com/s%61mple/
- http://www.example.com/sample/arbitrary/.%2e/