WebGuru8

Author: Mike smith(Shanghai IDC)

A domain name is a name that identifies a computer on the net. This is the definition that we are concerned with as an online marketer. Technically domain name also implies many other relates meanings but we would not consider them for a while.

Hostname or web address are more common terms used for domain names. Domain names provide more rememberable names to stand in for numeric IP address. It is because of domain names that you are able to remember the names of websites which are actually represented by numbers.

(It is easier to remember someexample.com instead of 132.173.0.654.)

The flexibility of the domain name system allows multiple IP addresses to be assigned to a single domain name, or multiple domain names to be assigned to a single IP address.

Domain names are different from URLs. Let us take an example to differentiate between domain name and a universal resource locator

URL: http://yourdomain.com
Domain name: yourdomain.com

In this example the domain name has two parts yourdomain and .com.
.com is called top level domain (TLD) and yourdomain would be called second level domain. Similarly if you make a further subdomain and name it somename then the address to that would become somename.yourdomain.com.

In such situations somename would be called third level domain. You can create any number of domains on a TLD without any restriction. Domains of third and higher levels are commonly called subdomains.

You must have seen many kinds of TLDs when surfing the web.
.com is most commonly used top level domain. Others which are commonly used are .org, .biz, .net etc. There are many others TLDs which are permissible by ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.) which looks after the work of assignment of domain names and IP addresses.

Currently this list includes following TLDs-

* .aero: Reserved for the global aviation community. Sponsored by Societe Internationale de Telecommunications Aeronautiques SC (SITA)
* .asia: Reserved for the Pan-Asia and Asia Pacific region. sponsored by DotAsia Organisation

* .biz: Restricted to businesses, operated by NeuLevel

* .cat: Reserved for the Catalan linguistic and cultural community, sponsored by Fundació puntCat.

* .com : Operated by Verisign Global Registry Services

* .coop : Reserved for cooperatives. Sponsored by Dot Cooperation LLC.

* .info: Operated by Afilias Limited

* .jobs: Reserved for the human resource management community. Sponsored by EmployMedia LLC,operated by Afilias Limited

* .mobi: Reserved for consumers and providers of mobile products and services sponsored by mTLD Top Level Domain, Ltd.

* .museum : Restricted to museums and related persons. sponsored by the Museum Domain Management Association (MuseDoma)

* .name: Restricted to individuals. Operated by Global Name Registry.

* .net: Operated by Verisign Global Registry Services.

* .org: Operated by Public Interest Registry

* .pro: Restricted to licensed professionals. Operated by RegistryPro

* .travel: Reserved for entities whose primary area of activity is in the travel industry. Sponsored by Tralliance Corporation.


But that is not all. Apart from these TLDs which are called generic TLDs and are under direct control of ICANN, there are many country code TLDs or ccTLDs which are country or region specific. Thus .us is for USA and .uk is for UK.

Chart Music

Nice post.
I wasn't aware of those different domain extension. For example not encountered a *.cat *.coop or *.name before.

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