<P> The term originates from the trail of bread crumbs left by Hansel and Gretel in the fairy tale of the same name . </P> <P> A breadcrumb trail tracks and displays each page viewed by a visitor of a website, either in the order the pages were viewed, or in other definitions, displaying a hierarchy of the current page in relation to the website's structure . Breadcrumbs are typically placed in horizontal form under the masthead or navigation of a website . </P> <P> Breadcrumbs typically appear horizontally across the top of a Web page, often below title bars or headers . They provide links back to each previous page the user navigated through to get to the current page or--in hierarchical site structures--the parent pages of the current one . Breadcrumbs provide a trail for the user to follow back to the starting or entry point . A greater - than sign (>) often serves as hierarchy separator, although designers may use other glyphs (such as" or"), as well as various graphical icons . </P> <P> A breadcrumb trail or path based on viewing history is typically rendered as follows: </P>

The navigation control is also referred to as the breadcrumb trail of site navigation