Internet Domain Name: Definition and additional resources from ZDNet

An organization's unique name on the Internet. The chosen name combined with a top level domain (TLD), such as .com or .org, also called a "domain extension," makes up the Internet domain name. For example, computerlanguage.com is the domain name for the publisher of this Encyclopedia. By 2006, there were more than 70 million registered domain names.

Dub-Dub-Dub
In order to access the Computer Language Company Web site, you would type www.computerlanguage.com in your browser's address field. The WWW (often verbalized as "dub-dub-dub") is a mnemonic commonly used for uniformity on the Web. However, the WWW prefix is often only an option, and Web servers are configured to handle an address with or without it; for example: computerlanguage.com without the WWW is sufficient.

Different mnemonics are also widely used to differentiate sections of the site; for example, support.computerlanguage.com could be a valid name, in which case "support" could not be omitted when typing in the name.

Second Level Domains
Technically, computerlanguage.com is a "second level domain," because the top level domain is .com. Computerlanguage.com is also known as a "root domain." In practice, both computerlanguage.com and www.computerlanguage.com are called domain names or "URLs," although the latter provides specific detail in many cases (see URL).

Registration
Internet domain names are registered with any of several dozen registrars. To find out if a domain name is taken, two popular domain name registrars are Network Solutions (www.netsol.com) and Go Daddy (www.godaddy.com). See DNS, IP address and FQDN.

Generic Top Level Domains
Following are the generic top level domains (gTLDs). The .com is the most desired because all major U.S. corporations adopted it early on, and it became trendy. The .com, .net and .org gTLDs are not restricted. If a .com name is already taken, a .net or .org gTLD is often chosen instead.

    .com    commercial
    .net    network
    .org    organization
    .edu    U.S. educational only
    .gov    U.S. government only
    .mil    U.S. military only
    .int    international treaties between
              governments only

More Domain Names
In late 2000, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced the following new top level domains (except for .mobi). Top level domains are not added at Internet speed. Prior to 2000, new domains had not been created since 1989. The .mobi domain was announced in 2005. Stay tuned! See New.net.

    .biz     a business
    .aero    aerospace
    .coop    cooperative
    .pro     professional
    .museum  museum
    .info    information service
    .name    individual/personal
    .mobi    geared to PDA and cellphone access

Country Codes
Country codes such as .ca for Canada and .uk for the United Kingdom are widely used top level domains. The U.S. country code (.us) is also used but not widespread. See country code and .tv.

Reproduced with permission from Computer Desktop Encyclopedia.
Copyright (c) 1981-2008 The Computer Language Company Inc.
All rights reserved.

Additional Resources

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