What is the use of # in url

Question

I realized that many of web app use # in their app's URL.

This address is in the URL bar when I am viewing the visitor's language page:

https://www.google.com/analytics/web/?hl=en#report/visitors-language/a33185827w60383872p61754588/

This address is in the address bar when I am viewing the visitors' geolocation page:

https://www.google.com/analytics/web/?hl=en#report/visitors-geo/a33185827w60383872p61754588/

I think that this is the Google Analytics web app passing #report/visitors-language and #report/vistiors-geo.

I know that Google analytics is using an <iframe>. It seems that only the main content box is changing when displaying content.

Is # used because of the <iframe> functionality?

the # tell the browser to scroll to a specific anchor in the page i.e sample.html#sample scroll the page to the — , Oct 12 '12 at 07:32

score 6 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 20 '20 at 23:13

There are several answers but none cover the backend part.

Here is a URL, one from your own example:

www.google.com/analytics/web/?hl=en#report/visitors-language/a33185827w60383872p61754588/

You can think about the post-hash (including the hash #) part as a client-side request.

The web server will never know what was entered after the hash sign. It is the browser pointing to a specific ID on the page.

For basic web pages, if you have this HTML: <a name="main">welcome</a>

on a web page at www.example.com/welcome, going to www.example.com/welcome#main will scroll your browser viewport to the welcome text in the <a> HTML tag.

The web server will not know whether #main was in the URL or not.

Values in the URL after a question mark are called URL parameters, e.g. www.example.com/?foo=bar. The web server can deliver different content based on those values.

However, there is a technology developed by Google called AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) that makes use of the # part in the URL to deliver different content without a page load. It's not using an <iframe>.

Using JavaScript, you can trigger a change in the URL's post-hash part and make a request to the server to get a specific part of the page, for example for the URL www.example.com/welcome#main2 Even if an element named #main2 does not exist, you can show one using JavaScript.

A hashbang is #!. It is used to make search engine indexing easier by indicating that this part is a dynamic web page.

hashbang is a hack. It was suppose to be temporary.... Its use should not be encouraged. — itachi, Oct 12 '12 at 08:43
Hi, is there any sample codes or tutorial for me to learn how to make use of # part of URL to deliver different content without a page load? — Slay, Oct 12 '12 at 15:33

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 12 '12 at 07:29

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This is the "hash" in the url.

Many browsers support hash change event in javascript.

as per my knowledge the hash change is the revolution in the ajax callbacks.

as such when the user interacts with the any link with a hash then on the hash change the event is fired and you can apply any thing with the javascript.

one more thing is that hash change is supported by the browser history.

answered Oct 12 '12 at 07:29

Vipin Jain

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isn't what you're referring to the #! (hashbang)? – ru3sch Oct 12 '12 at 07:32
@paulruescher plz check the docs first, hash change is fired without that ! symbol. google.com uses it. ! symbol is used to stop the page scrolling only – Vipin Jain Oct 12 '12 at 07:41
@VIPINJAIN: dont forget that # was originally created for an entirely different purpose aka ` – naveen Oct 12 '12 at 08:35
@naveen: yup i know :) but now it for different purpose. and what the user is asking is defined there. – Vipin Jain Oct 12 '12 at 08:37

score 1 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:47

see below URL

SEO and the use of !# in a url

or Read it

'#! is called a "hashbang" and they are the root of all that is evil in web development.'

Basically, weak web developers decided to use #anchor names as a kludgy hack to get "web 2.0" things to work on their page, then complained to google that their page rank suffered. Google made a work around to their kludge by enabling the hashbang.

Weak web developers took this work around as gospel. Don't use it. It is a crutch.

Web development that depends on hashbangs is web-development done wrong.

This article is far more well worded than I could ever be, and deals with the Gawker media fiasco from their migration to a (failed) hashbang centric website. It tells you WHAT is happening and why it's bad.

http://isolani.co.uk/blog/javascript/BreakingTheWebWithHashBangs

if you want to achieve similar functionality, use the History API http://diveintohtml5.info/history.html — ru3sch, Oct 12 '12 at 07:33

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 12 '12 at 07:28

Correct me if I'm wrong, the hashtag in that URL would be used as an anchor to scroll the page to an element with an id. For example, I send you to the url http://example.com/sample#example, and the page would scroll (just display) at the element (I'm using a div as an arbitrary example, it could be anything).

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 12 '12 at 07:34

Ajax and hash mark in the url mostly used for quick action. If you have a part in your site that can be visible only by fire event (mostly click) - it would be hard to share it. With hash mark in the url you can (by javascript) make the browser think that you did the required action and it will display the relevant part.

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Oct 12 '12 at 07:38

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Normally the '#' is using in url will find the particular id which is next to '#' in that particular page. By using this we can view the particular content at middle of the page also.

answered Oct 12 '12 at 07:38

Kalaiyarasan

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What is the use of # in url

6 Answers6