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About Top Level Domains (TLDs)

A top level domain (TLD) is one of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet. The top-level domain names are installed in the root zone of the name space. For all domains in lower levels, it is the last part of the domain name, that is, the last label of a fully qualified domain name. For example, in the domain name www.example.com, the top-level domain is com, or COM, as domain names are not case-sensitive. Management of most top-level domains is delegated to responsible organizations by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which operates the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) and is in charge of maintaining the DNS root zone.

Originally, the top-level domain space was organized into three main groups,^[1] Countries, Categories, and Multiorganizations. An additional temporary group consisted only of the initial DNS domain,^[2] arpa, intended for transitional purposes toward the stabilization of the domain name system.

Countries are designated in the Domain Name System by their two-letter ISO country code;^[3] there are exceptions, however (e.g., .uk). This group of domains is therefore commonly known as country-code top-level domains (ccTLD).

The Categories group has become known as the generic top-level domains. Initially this group consisted of GOV, EDU, COM, MIL, ORG, and NET.

In the growth of the Internet, it became desirable to create additional generic top-level domains. Some of the initial domains’ purposes were also generalized, modified, or assigned for maintenance to special organizations affiliated with the intended purpose.

As a result, IANA today distinguishes the following groups of top-level domains:^[4]

• country-code top-level domains (ccTLD): Two letter domains established for countries or territories or their internationalized domain names (IDN ccTLD). With some historical exceptions, the code for any territory is the same as its two-letter ISO 3166 code.
• generic top-level domains(gTLD): Top-level domains with three or more characters
  • unsponsored top-level domains: domains that operate directly under policies established by ICANN processes for the global Internet community.
  • sponsored top-level domains (sTLD): These domains are proposed and sponsored by private agencies or organizations that establish and enforce rules restricting the eligibility to use the TLD. Use is based on community theme concepts.
  • infrastructure top-level domain: This group consists of one domain, the Address and Routing Parameter Area (ARPA). It is managed by IANA on behalf of the Internet Engineering Task Force for various purposes specified in Request for Comments.

In addition, a group of internationalized domain name (IDN) top-level domains has been installed under test for testing purposes. Since November 2009, countries and territories may apply for IDN ccTLDs.

The authoritative list of currently existing TLDs in the root zone is published at the IANA website at http://www.iana.org/domains/root/db/

About Domain Names by Country (ccTLD)

A number of the world’s smallest countries have licensed their TLDs for worldwide commercial use. For example, Tuvalu and the Federated States of Micronesia, small island-states in the Pacific, have partnered with VeriSign and FSM Telecommunications respectively, to sell domain names using the .tv and .fm TLDs to television and radio stations.

Vanity ccTLDs are TLDs which are used for various purposes outside their home countries, because of their name. For example,

• .ac is a ccTLD for Ascension Island, but is sometimes used in Sweden, as “AC” is the abbreviation for the Västerbotten County.^[5]
• .ad is a ccTLD for Andorra, but has recently been increasingly used by advertising agencies or classified advertising.
• .ag is a ccTLD for Antigua and Barbuda and is sometimes used for agricultural sites. In Germany, AG (short for Aktiengesellschaft) is appended to the name of a stock-based company, similar to Inc. in USA.
• .am is a ccTLD for Armenia, but is often used for AM radio stations, or for domain hacks (such as .i.am).
• .as is a ccTLD for American Samoa. In Denmark and Norway, AS is appended to the name of a stock-based company, similar to Inc. in USA. In Czech Republic, the joint stock corporation a.s. abbreviation stands for Akciová spole?nost.
• .at is a ccTLD for Austria but is used for English words ending in at (e.at).
• .be is a ccTLD for Belgium, but is sometimes used for the literal term “be” and the Swiss Canton of Bern.
• .by is a ccTLD for Belarus, but is sometimes used in Germany, as “BY” is the official abbreviation of the state Bayern.
• .ca is a ccTLD for Canada, and is occasionally used to create domain hacks like histori.ca, the web domain of the Historica/Dominion Institute. This type of use is limited by the .ca domain’s Canadian residence requirements.
• .cc is a ccTLD for Cocos (Keeling) Islands but is used for a wide variety of sites such as community colleges, especially before such institutions were allowed to use .edu.
• .cd is a ccTLD for Democratic Republic of Congo but is used for CD merchants and file sharing sites.
• .ch is a ccTLD for Switzerland but there are also a few church websites.^[6]
• .ck is a ccTLD for Cook Islands was notably abused in Chris Morris’s Nathan Barley by preceding it with “.co” in order to spell out the word “cock” (.co.ck as in trashbat.co.ck).
• .co is a ccTLD for Colombia but is marketed as commercial, corporation or company.^[4]
• .dj is a ccTLD for Djibouti but is used for CD merchants and disc jockeys.
• .fm is a ccTLD for the Federated States of Micronesia but it is often used for FM radio stations (and even non-FM stations, such as internet radio stations).
• .gg is a ccTLD for Guernsey but it is often used by the gaming and gambling industry, particularly in relation to horse racing and online poker.
• .im is a ccTLD for the Isle of Man but is often used by instant messaging programs and services.
• .in is a ccTLD for India but is widely used in the internet industry.
• .io is a ccTLD for the British Indian Ocean Territory. Notable examples are online storage site Drop.io and task list site Done.io.
• .is is a ccTLD for Iceland but is used as the English verb, “to be” in conjunction with a directory name suffix to complete a linguistically correct sentence (e.g. “<noun>.is/<verb/adjective>”).
• .it is a ccTLD for Italy but is used in domain hacks (e.g. .has.it).
• .je is a ccTLD for Jersey but is often used as a diminutive in Dutch (e.g. “huis.je”), as “you” (“zoek.je” = “search you!”), or as “I” in French (e.g. “moi.je”)
• .la is a ccTLD for Laos but is marketed as the TLD for Los Angeles.
• .li is a ccTLD for Liechtenstein but is marketed as the TLD for Long Island.
• .lv is a ccTLD for Latvia but is also used to abbreviate Las Vegas or less frequently, love.
• .ly is a ccTLD for Libya but is also used for words ending with suffix “ly”.
• .md is a ccTLD for Moldova, but is marketed to the medical industry (as in “medical domain” or “medical doctor”).
• .me is a ccTLD for Montenegro, and is recently opened to individuals.
• .mn is a ccTLD for Mongolia, but is used to abbreviate Minnesota.
• .ms is a ccTLD for Montserrat, but is also used by Microsoft for such projects as popfly.ms.
• .mu is a ccTLD for Mauritius, but is used within the music industry.
• .ni is a ccTLD for Nicaragua, but is occasionally adopted by companies from Northern Ireland, particularly to distinguish from the more usual .uk within all parts of the United Kingdom
• .nu is a ccTLD for Niue but marketed as resembling “new” in English and “now” in Scandinavian/Dutch. Also meaning “nude” in French/Portuguese.
• .pr is a ccTLD for Puerto Rico, but can be used in the meaning of “Public Relations”
• .sc is a ccTLD for Seychelles but is often used as .Source
• .sh is a ccTLD for Saint Helena, but is also sometimes used for entities connected to the German Bundesland of Schleswig-Holstein or the Swiss Canton of Schaffhausen, or to Shanghai or Shenzen in China.
• .si is a ccTLD for Slovenia, but is also used by Hispanic sites as “yes” (“sí”). Mexican mayor candidate Jorge Arana, for example, had his web site registered as http://www.jorgearana.si (i.e. “Jorge Arana, sí”, meaning “Jorge Arana, yes”).
• .sr is a ccTLD for Suriname but is marketed as being for “seniors”.
• .st is a ccTLD for São Tomé and Príncipe but is being marketed worldwide as an abbreviation for various things including “street”.
• .tk is a ccTLD for Tokelau but is bought by someone and given away at dot.tk page
• .tm is a ccTLD for Turkmenistan but it can be used as “Trade Mark”
• .to is a ccTLD for Tonga but is often used as the English word “to”, like “go.to”; also is marketed as the TLD for Toronto and for the Italian city and province of Turin (Torino in Italian).
• .tv is a ccTLD for Tuvalu but it is used for the television (“TV”) / entertainment industry purposes. It is also used for local businesses in the province of Treviso (Italy).
• .vg is a ccTLD for British Virgin Islands but is sometimes used to abbreviate Video games
• .vu is a ccTLD for Vanuatu but means “seen” in French as well as an abbreviation for the English language word “view”.
• .ws is a ccTLD for Samoa (earlier Western Samoa), but is marketed as .Website

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