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Top-level Internet domain names (TLDs)

a guide to basic webpage extensions, including .com, .edu, .org, and .net July 2002

Original top-level domains

The original Internet top-level domains (TLDs) and their intended use are as follows. Note that the domain registrars place no restrictions on who applies for one of the worldwide TLDs (.com, .net, .org). For example, a non-profit corporation is free to use a ".com" domain while a for-profit entity can purchase and use a ".org" domain. In general, though, people tend to follow the guidelines pretty well.
.com
Originally intended for "commercial" entities, but any person or organization, commercial or otherwise, may register a domain name with this TLD. This is one of the worldwide top-level domains.
.edu
United States educational institutions. Originally for four-year, degree-granting colleges and universities, but it has recently been opened up to two-year institutions as well. Community colleges used to be restricted to the ".us" top-level domain for the United States but can now get a ".edu" domain, such as www.jccc.edu for Johnson County Community College. Institutions can only have one ".edu" domain. (They can get a second one if they intend to transition to the new one -- such as ksu.edu transitioning to k-state.edu, and ukans.edu transitioning to ku.edu.)
.gov
United States Federal Government agencies and branches. State and local governments in the United States should use the ".us" top-level country code domain, such as www.ci.manhattan.ks.us for the City of Manhattan.
.mil
United States military entities.
.net
Entities and computers that represent part of the Internet's infrastructure. Originally network operations centers (NOCs), administrative computers (such as a name server), and network node computers. This is one of the worldwide top-level domains.
.org
Designated for miscellaneous entities that do not fit under any of the other top-level domains. Typically used for non-profit organizations, but the registrars do not restrict who is granted this TLD. This is one of the worldwide top-level domains.

"Country code" top-level domains

Top-level domains also exist for every country in the world. Examples include
.us -- United States
.uk -- United Kingdom
.jp -- Japan
.cn -- China
.ch -- Switzerland
.fr -- France
.br -- Brazil
.au -- Australia

A complete list may be found at www.iana.org/cctld/cctld-whois.htm.

New top-level domains

In 2000, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) decided to allow seven new top-level domains in two categories -- unsponsored and sponsored. Most went live in 2001 or 2002.

Unsponsored domains are intended to be relatively large, generally available domains operating under policies established by the global Internet community directly through the ICANN process. New unsponsored TLDs are

.biz
Businesses -- see www.nic.biz
.info
Unrestricted use, but designed to have information about your company and/or products. For example, k-state.info, which K-State owns, would be a good domain to use for general purpose information about the university. Right now, it takes you to K-State's main homepage. Like the .com TLD, people can use .info for anything they want -- it's unrestricted. See www.nic.info for more information.
.name
For registration by individuals, such as harvard.townsend.name.
See www.nic.name for more information.
.pro
Restricted to accountants, lawyers, physicians, and other professionals.
See www.nic.pro for more information.

Sponsored domains are more specialized, with restrictions on the type of organization that can obtain them, and with policy-formulation responsibilities delegated to a sponsor representing the narrower community that is most affected by the TLD. New sponsored TLDs are

.aero
Sponsored by the Societe Internationale de Telecommunications Aeronautiques SC (SITA) exclusively for the aviation industry. Some of the entities entitled to register a .aero domain are
  • Aerospace
  • Airlines and commercial operators
  • Airports
  • Aviation education and research
  • Aviation media
  • Aviation professionals
  • Civil aviation authorities
  • Government organizations linked to aviation
  • Pilots
  • Recreational aviation
See www.nic.aero for more information.
.coop
Registration is restricted to "cooperatives, cooperative service organizations, and wholly owned subsidiaries of cooperatives". Sponsored by DotCooperation LLC.
See www.nic.coop for more information.
.museum
Registration is restricted to "museums, museum organizations, and individual members of the museum profession". Sponsored by the Museum Domain Management Association (MuseDoma). K-State could, for example, get k-state.museum and support beach.k-state.museum for the Beach Museum of Art.
See www.nic.museum for more information.

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