Internet domain name
Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus, Medical, Legal, Financial.
Internet domain name
An organization's unique name on the Internet. The chosen name combined with a generic top-level domain (gTLD), such as .com or .org, make up the Internet domain name. For example, computerlanguage.com is the domain name for the publisher of this encyclopedia. By the end of 2016, there were more than 300 million registered domain names.Dot-Anything
Under ICANN's "New gTLD" program, communities, industries and organizations can create their own top-level domain names (see New gTLD).
Dub-Dub-Dub
In order to access the Computer Language Company website, www.computerlanguage.com is typed into the browser's address bar (see URL). The WWW, often verbalized as "dub-dub-dub," is a mnemonic commonly used for the hostname of a company's Web server. However, WWW is only recommended for uniformity, and Web servers can have any hostname. In addition, most companies configure their DNS records to send all Web traffic to a particular Web server without a hostname. For example, computerlanguage.com without the WWW is sufficient. See hostname and DNS.
Different mnemonics are also widely used to identify sections of a site; for example, support.computerlanguage.com could be a valid address, in which case the word SUPPORT could not be omitted when typing the name.
Registration
Internet domain names are registered with any one of hundreds of registrars. To find out if a domain name is taken, two popular registrars are Network Solutions (www.networksolutions.com) and Go Daddy (www.godaddy.com).
Generic Top-Level Domains
Following are the original top-level domains, created in 1985. Known as "generic" TLDs (gTLDs), the .com gTLD is the most desired, because all major corporations worldwide use it. Although the .com, .net and .org domains were created for particular categories of registrants, anyone can register an unrestricted gTLD if available.
Original Unrestricted Top-Level DomainsgTLD Purpose.com commercial .net network oriented .org non-profit organization Original Restricted Top-Level Domains.edu accredited U.S. educational .gov U.S. government agencies .mil U.S. military .int international treaties (1988)
More Domain Names
Starting in 2000, ICANN added more domains. Sponsored domains means that their use is reserved for a particular community, or registration is restricted to a certain type of applicant (see sTLD).
Sponsored Top-Level DomainssTLD Purpose.aero global aviation community .asia Pan-Asia/Asia Pacific region .cat Catalan community .coop cooperatives .jobs human resources/employment .mobi mobile products/services .museum museums .post postal sector .pro licensed professionals .tel contacts (see .tel) .travel travel industry .xxx X-rated Unsponsored Top-Level Domains.biz businesses .info information service .name individuals
Countries Also Have Domain Names
Every country has a top-level domain; for example, .ca for Canada and .fr for France. The U.S. country code is .us, but it is not widely used. See country code, New gTLD, ICANN, IP address and FQDN.