What is a Domain Name?
Navigation
- The Concept of Domain Names
- The Domain Extensions
- Country Code Domain Names
- How to Obtain a Domain Name
- The Obsession for Domain Names
The Concept of Domain Name
Mainly websites are hosted in a computer that is called a server.
This server has an IP address like 216.239.51.99 –this is the address of
google.com. But the problem is for a user like me and you; it will be harder to
memorize the IP address of different websites. This is why domain names have
been invented to make it easy to use the internet and websites.
So now that you know the basic concept of what a domain is, now
let’s go even further. As I said it is a unique address, this means there is no
duplicates. Two people cannot register the name at the same time.
The Domain Extensions
In the early days of the internet (in the 1990s) the first 3
versions were the .COM, .NET and .ORG. These are called top level domains or
TLD. Dot Com stands for company, communication, community or commercial entity.
This is the first domain extension and right now it is most popular having 95.5
Million registered names as of 2011 (source: Internet in numbers)
Dot Net stands for network & internet communication websites
but right now only the most technology savvy people use this domain
name extension.
Dot Org stands for no profit organization and the least popular
among the original trio of domains. However a website in an .org extension receives
trust as being a non commercial identity in the eyes of a web visitor.
After the introduction of the 3 domain extensions, there have
been more TLDs such as the .BIZ –for business sites; Dot Mobi for mobile
websites; and .info for information website. Again the Dot Com ruled because
more and more regular users know about the .COM as the internet, without caring
about other extensions.
Country Code Domain Names
Then there were more extensions for every country and territory,
called the Country Code Top Level Domain names or ccTLD. For an example United
Kingdom uses .co.uk, while in the United States, they have .us. In majority all
country code domain names are of two letters (like .us) –each country code domain
name is operated by its territory and they set who can obtain one and
for what fee.
In my opinion the most lucrative ccTLD as of now is the .TV
extension from the islands of Tuvalu. This is only because TV stands for
Televisions, which gained instant popularity in the entertainment industry. In
the past only registered TV channel owners could register a .TV domain for high
fee, but right now anyone can obtain this extension for a standard charge.
How to Obtain a Domain Name
To obtain a domain name yourself you have to find a domain name
registrar. You can purchase it online with a credit card. Domain names can’t be
purchased for a lifetime; it can be only registered for a set number of years. GoDaddy the
most popular domain seller offers it for $15 per year. From them you can
register a domain for up to 10 years.
Network Solutions –another reputed domain name company allows
the user to register a domain name for up to 100 years. Well it is not
recommended that you register a domain name for that long because who knows
what will be the future of the internet.
You are also allowed to transfer your domain name from one
registrar to another using your domain pin number.
Before the domain name is about to expire you have to add more
years to it by renewing the name. A good practice is to register the web
address for longer period (like 2-5 years).
Domain names start with just one letter and it can be upto 67
letters. But a wise thing is to keep the domain name as short and easy to type
as possible. Domain names can have letters (A-Z) numbers (0-9) and hyphens (-)
The Obsession for Domains
I found many people on the internet while working with them;
they have the obsession to obtain many different versions of their business.
For an example someone has a domain CarpetCleaningSeattle.com. Then he/she will
go ahead and also obtain versions like:
CarpetCleaningSeattle.net
CarpetCleaningSeattle.org
Carpet-Cleaning-Seattle.com
CarpetCleaning-Seattle.com
CarpetCleaningSeattle.org
Carpet-Cleaning-Seattle.com
CarpetCleaning-Seattle.com
While it is a good thing to protect your business, however this
is an unproductive and pricy task. The first aim for your business should be to
build it and bring in more customers, then to protect its identity.
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