Abstract: A system, method and apparatus for locating and accessing information resources in a distributed information network is disclosed. When an end user desires to retrieve an ID for a particular profile associated with a resource, a client program (resident on a client computer) sends a an ID request in the form of an HTTP request to an ID authority server computer. In response to the ID request, the ID authority server computer returns a URL of an ID registry server computer corresponding to the requested profile type. The client program then sends a query based upon the returned domain name to the ID registry server. The ID registry server, in turn, returns a URL of an ID host server computer associated with the requested ID so, in one implementation, the client can invoke a program that is a superset of the domain name. Once the client program has the location of the ID host server computer, the client program sends a request to the identified ID host server computer.