Although they don’t get as much attention as the domain name itself, domain name suffixes are an essential part of a URL, and they are about to become even more so. That’s because a whole host of new domain name suffixes is about to be opened up to website creators.
Even though domain name suffixes have been a part of the domain name since the beginning, they generally do not get as much attention as the domain name itself. In addition, they tend to be less well understood. Alternative terms for domain name suffix are top-level domains and domain name extensions. These are important, because, without them, the domain name itself could not exist.
When you register a domain name, in addition to choosing the name itself you are required to choose a suffix. While this used to be limited, the range of options in recent years has grown considerably.
The domain name suffix is an important part of domain name functioning because it allows visitors to a site to recognize its nature. It describes the type of organization that controls the site and is known as a generic top level domain.
For this reason, there are a number of different domain name suffixes. The most common is .com, which stands for company or commercial organization. The other two most common domain name suffixes are .org, which stands for organization and .net for network.
A few years after the creation of the domain name system, another set of domain name suffixes were introduced. These include:
.aero for the air transport industry;
.biz for reserved businesses;
.com for commercial enterprises or online services;
.coop, reserved for cooperatives;
.edu for educational institutions and universities;
.gov for United States government agencies;
.info for general use;
.int for entities that were established by international treaties; and
.mil for United States military.
in addition to the above-mentioned, there are other domain name suffixes which include:
.museum, for use by museums;
.name for use by individuals;
.net for network, typically reserved for organizations such as internet service providers;
.org for non commercial organizations; and
.pro for use by professionals like physicians and attorneys.
The above-named domain name suffixes are maintained by ICANN, the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. This organization manages the domain name system, which identifies the entities that manage particular websites.
Recently, ICANN has announced proposals for a gaggle of new Internet suffixes, part of the largest expansion of the Internet address system since it was created back in the 1980s. In fact, there are 1,930 proposals for new domain name suffixes in the works which include such words as .joy, .love, .beauty, .cruise, .kids, .tires, .author, .app and .music.
Whether this landslide of new domain name suffixes will make the process of choosing a domain name easier or harder remains to be seen. In addition to Apple.com, in the future might there also be an Apple.app and an Apple.music?
One thing is certain: none of the available domain name suffixes are going to be appropriate for every situation. When it comes time to register a domain name, your own judgment will be crucial.
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