what does the href mean?

[html20009876]

what does the href mean?
==================================
<a href="http://extremetracking.com/open?login=gsk456">
http://members.fortunecity.com/neshkov/dj.html<br>
</a>
==================================
http://extremetracking.com ----- no problem
/open -------- is it a directory or something else?
?login=gsk456 ------- is it a parameter passed to the link page?

more:
is the link page a php file or html file or other files?

thx

[rincewind456]

From the HTML specs:

href = uri [CT]
This attribute specifies the location of a Web resource, thus defining a link between the current element (the source anchor) and the destination anchor defined by this attribute.

Take a look at http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/struct/links.html

[Robert Wellock]

The rest is a server variable.

[ray326]

"?login=gsk456" is a Query String. It's meant to pass parameters to a URL accessed through a GET method but will be available to POSTs, too. It is what it looks like, a variable named "login" will have a value of "gsk456".

"/open" is much tougher but it is almost certainly an alias that the server will use to address a server side process, passing that query string to it.

[html20009876]

can not find any useful info on your links (for reply 1 and 2)

[Nedals]

Not sure it has a definition. My guess: 'hypertext reference'

In the anchor tag '<a...>...</a>' you need, in most instances, to include an 'http', HyperText Transfer Protocol, link

Any help? :)