| By :
Dirik Hameed
It is hard to imagine how modern life would work without the Internet. While you can use it easily enough, you might not know how it's been organized. There is the organizational scheme used by computers to talk to each other over the Internet, but that isn't much use to humans. So there is a second level of plain text organization made up of domain names. Every distinct website has its own domain name so people can find it easily. One of the standardized components of domains are its top level domain (TLD). The TLD represents the broadest division within the naming system under which that website has been placed. You can see it of any web address; it's the last text string after the farthest right period. This means that ". Com" is the TLD in the web address of YouTube.com. You can't just make up your own. The list of acceptable choices is approved by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). It manages TLD assignments through a variety of smaller groups that operate all over the world. You can buy domain names for any number of companies. However, it's these TLD management organizations authorized by ICANN that work with those companies to ensure that no domain names are sold more than once. The first collection was divided into three main divisions: countries, categories, and multi-organizations. The original category options were COM, NET, EDU, GOV, MIL, and ORG. Each one represented a general site type. The most popular one for domain names has historically been COM (commercial) intended for business interests, but in reality available for use by anyone. Some of these category endings were more restrictive as to what kind of sites could use it. For example, EDU, which stands of education, was only available to sites operated by educational institutions. Now the basic category ones have been renamed generic TLDs (gTLD). Another change is that the number of gTLDs approved by ICANN has increased. Additional gTLDs like INFO, BIZ (for exclusive use by businesses), and NAME (reserved for private individuals) have joined the list. There are also industry specific gTLDs, such as AERO and TEL. The scope of country and geographic code TLDs has also grown. Traditionally, these codes have been two letter abbreviations, such as UK (United Kingdom) or EU (European Union). One of the newest collections of country codes (ccTLD) are being created in languages that aren't written with the Latin alphabet. These are being created for such countries like China, Russia, Greece, and the Arabic speaking countries. As the Internet continues to expand, proposed additions to the list of approved choices expands as well. Some of the new types of geographic endings proposed focus on popular city names, like Berlin, NYC, and London. Other types of new suggestions include Free, Shop, and Music. The more precise a TLD can be, the more information it can provides users about the various domain names they see.
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