QUERY STRING DEFINITION
When found in web site URLs, query strings denote the information that is being passed to a web application. For example, on sites that are driven by a database or ContentManagementSystem (CMS) software, a query string towards the end of a URL gives the CMS information it needs to properly process page requests.
For example:
http://www.site.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=459
While the first part of the URL above has been changed to www.site.com from the real site URL, the rest of the URL above is from a real page. Everything after the "?" is part of a query string that tells the CMS (in this case the OpenSource CMS Joomla) to use the content component software that is part of this CMS and display a page of content that it has given the id of "459".
Query string URLs traditionally gave search engines difficulty in indexing sites, but there are workarounds and most search engines have now found ways to deal with sites they find difficult to crawl.
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