You can use URL parameters to personalize a website. For example, you could ask for the user's first name on the start page, pass the name to the server in a URL parameter, then display it on all subsequent pages.

You can also personalize a site by recording a user's preferences. For example, you could ask for the user's language preference, pass the choice to the server in a URL parameter, then display only pages written in the user's chosen language.

Application developers commonly use URL parameters to pass values to variables in their applications. For example, you could pass search words to SQL variables in your web application to generate search results.

You can even use URL parameters to customize the functionality of a dynamic web page. For example, you could start by asking the user what action he or she wants to carry out (add a record, update a record, view records, and so on), then pass the action to the server in a URL parameter such as action=addrecord . The server would then add the necessary functionality to the requested page based on the URL parameter's value—for example, by using a Select Case (VBScript), cfswitch (CFML), or switch (Java, JavaScript) statement and server-side includes.