A physical location is learned for a resource communicating with a network. A global resource locator (GRL) tag is assigned to the resource. The GRL tag includes at least a description of the physical location of the resource. The GRL tag is communicated over the network. A client receives the GRL tag and extracts the description of the location of the resource. The GRL tag may include a coordinate system and coordinates for the resource identifying the location of the resource. The GRL tag may also include a descriptive label of the resource. The GRL tag is either stored on the resource or in a list of resources on a server. GRL tags may be searched by applying user selected search criteria to the GRL tag. An example of user selected search criteria is a comparison of the location of the user to the location of the resource.