Domain names extensions can be classified in a typology based on their use, a priori or not, like for instance geographic extensions or according to the activity they involve.
Top-Level Domains, or TLDs, match the label put after the last dot of the address (like the .com in duckduckgo.com), second-level domains match the previous label when it is not the domain name per se (the .com in achei.com.br).
Let's see the different types of domains and their extensions.
If some are restricted to a specific category of users (.biz for business, .name for people, .pro for professionals), others are not (.com for commercial websites, .net for networks, .org for non-profit organizations), even if they are open to any kind of content.
Some of them are hacked from their official use. They are domains of convenience, or vanity ccTLDs, and are quite similar to the flags of convenience in the merchant navy. Some play on their similarity with others, like the Columbian .co or the Cameroonian .cm very close from the .com, others on their potential meaning, especially in English (the Icelandic .is that gives for example who.is). They also help forming nested domain names, like blo.gs (South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands), del.icio.us (United States), or cr.yp.to (Tonga), and they make us learn a bit about geography if need be.
Among the most used, we find for instance:
Other alphabets are already supported:
Many other countries have started the process and are waiting at different stages of it (preparation, evaluation and delegation).
That evolution prefigures the arrival of extensions specific to cultural and linguistic communities, notably in Europe and in Russia.
In spite of everything, some rules are imposed by the ICANN to avoid any possible confusion between Latin characters and characters from other alphabets. Greece has seen its .ελ extension refused, as too close to .ea (although not attributed), Bulgaria its .бг visually close to the Brazilian .br.
This was a small tour of the different types of domain names extensions already in use. If you will to bet on the domain names market, there are many registrars and hosts proposing their services.
Top-Level Domains, or TLDs, match the label put after the last dot of the address (like the .com in duckduckgo.com), second-level domains match the previous label when it is not the domain name per se (the .com in achei.com.br).
Let's see the different types of domains and their extensions.
Infrastructure domain
The infrastructure domain only counts one extension: the .arpa internally used by internet protocols.Generic Top-Level Domains
The generic Top-Level Domains, or gTLDs, group all the non geographic extensions.If some are restricted to a specific category of users (.biz for business, .name for people, .pro for professionals), others are not (.com for commercial websites, .net for networks, .org for non-profit organizations), even if they are open to any kind of content.
Sponsored Top-Level Domains
Also known under the acronym sTLD, they need the confirmation of their owner organization activity (.edu for the post-secondary institutions accredited by an agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education, .aero for air-transport industries, .mobi for providers and consumers of mobile products and services).Country code Top-Level Domains
Abbreviated as ccTLD, they are based on the ISO 3166-1 country code norm, and thus count two letters only (.us for United States, .uk for United Kingdom, .fr for France, .mx for Mexico, .br for Brazil).Some of them are hacked from their official use. They are domains of convenience, or vanity ccTLDs, and are quite similar to the flags of convenience in the merchant navy. Some play on their similarity with others, like the Columbian .co or the Cameroonian .cm very close from the .com, others on their potential meaning, especially in English (the Icelandic .is that gives for example who.is). They also help forming nested domain names, like blo.gs (South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands), del.icio.us (United States), or cr.yp.to (Tonga), and they make us learn a bit about geography if need be.
Among the most used, we find for instance:
- .ly
The Lybian extension, managed by Nic.ly costs about $30 per year (or 40 Libyan dinars, source). It helps form double-barrelled domain names like visua.ly, instant.ly or intelligent.ly, and it is highly valued by URLs shorteners (like bit.ly, ow.ly, to.ly), a type of addresses that appeared mostly due to Twitter limitations.
- .me
Officially linked to Montenegro since September 2007, the .me extension is managed by Domain.me and already counted 644,000 domains on July 1st 2012 (source). That extension is sold $9/year.
- .nu
Managed by the NuNames company on behalf of the Niue island in the South Pacific Ocean, the .nu extension achieved great success since its creation in 1997, as it is pronounced like new, and also in the Germanic languages spoken in Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden in which it means now. A domain name with this extension costs about $28/year depending on its registrar.
- .tv
The Tuvalu islands transformed their extension into a genuine strategic resource. Entrusted to a subsidiary of VeriSign, its exploitation has already yield $50 millions over 12 years to their inhabitants, at the rate of $25/year the domain name (regular price at NameCheap).
Internationalized country code Top-Level Domains
Since May 5 2010, it is possible to register internationalized country code domains, named IDN ccTLD or ccIDN. Egypt has validated its extension مصر. (with for example http://وزارة-الأتصالات.مصر/), Saudi Arabia لسعودية. (see http://سجل.السعودية/), and the United Arab Emirates امارات. (with http://عربي.امارات/), all of them in May 2010.Other alphabets are already supported:
- Cyrillic
- .рф for Russia in May 2010 (statistics)
- .қаз for Kazakhstan in March 2012
- Traditional and classical Chinese
- .中國 and .中国 for China in June 2010
- .台灣 and .台湾 for Taiwan in June 2010
- .香港 for Hong-Kong in March 2011
Many other countries have started the process and are waiting at different stages of it (preparation, evaluation and delegation).
That evolution prefigures the arrival of extensions specific to cultural and linguistic communities, notably in Europe and in Russia.
In spite of everything, some rules are imposed by the ICANN to avoid any possible confusion between Latin characters and characters from other alphabets. Greece has seen its .ελ extension refused, as too close to .ea (although not attributed), Bulgaria its .бг visually close to the Brazilian .br.
Reserved Top-Level Domains
Reserved for another use than regular domain names, the rTLDs have been withdrawn for any production networks. There are only four of them: .example, .invalid, .localhost and .test.This was a small tour of the different types of domain names extensions already in use. If you will to bet on the domain names market, there are many registrars and hosts proposing their services.
Source of the illustration: Byte Level
Tipologia das extensões de nomes de domínio (in Portuguese)
Tipología de las extensiones de los nombres de dominio (in Spanish)
Typologie des extensions de noms de domaines (in French)
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