Methods and apparatus for rating Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) are disclosed. The method includes determining a request size pertaining to a length of the URL to be rated and for generating a rating request message containing the URL. The rating request message is a DNS (domain name system) message if the request size is less than or equal to a predefined size limitation, and the rating request message is a HTTP (hypertext transfer protocol) message if the request size is greater than the predefined size limitation.