Generic top-level domain

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A generic top-level domain (gTLD) is a top-level domain used (at least in theory) by a particular class of organization. These are three or more letters long, and are named for the type of organization that they represent (for example, .com for commercial organizations). The following gTLDs currently exist [1] (as does .arpa, which is sometimes considered a gTLD):

  • .aero - for the air transport industry
  • .biz - for business use
  • .cat - for Catalan language/culture
  • .com - for commercial organizations, but unrestricted
  • .coop - for cooperatives
  • .edu - for post-secondary educational establishments
  • .gov - for governments and their agencies in the United States
  • .info - for informational sites, but unrestricted
  • .int - for international organizations established by treaty
  • .jobs - for employment-related sites
  • .mil - for the US military
  • .mobi - for sites catering to mobile devices
  • .museum - for museums
  • .name - for families and individuals
  • .net - originally for network infrastructures, now unrestricted
  • .org - originally for organizations not clearly falling within the other gTLDs, now unrestricted
  • .pro - for certain professions
  • .travel - for travel agents, airlines, hoteliers, tourism bureaus, etc.

The following gTLDs are in the process of being approved, and may be added to the root nameservers in the near future:

  • .asia - for the Asian community
  • .post - for postal services
  • .tel - for services involving connections between the telephone network and the Internet
  • .geo - for geographically related sites

Contents

[edit] History

When generic top-level domains were first implemented, in January 1985, there were six:

While .net was not listed in the original RFC document describing the domain name system, it was added by the time the first group of names were implemented.

The .com, .net, and .org gTLDs, despite their original different uses, are now in practice open for use by anybody for any purpose.

In November 1988, another gTLD was introduced, .int. This gTLD was introduced in response to NATO's request for a domain name which adequately reflected its character as an international organization. It was also originally planned to be used for some Internet infrastructure databases, such as .ip6.int, the IPv6 equivalent of .in-addr.arpa. However, in May 2000, the Internet Architecture Board proposed to close the .int domain to new infrastructure databases. All future such databases would be created in .arpa (a legacy of the pre-TLD system), and existing ones would move to .arpa wherever feasible, which led to the use of .ip6.arpa for IPv6 reverse lookups.

By the mid-1990s there was pressure for more gTLDs to be introduced. Jon Postel, as head of IANA, invited applications from interested parties [2]. In early 1995, Postel created "Draft Postel", an Internet draft containing the procedures to create new domain name registries and new TLDs. Draft Postel created a number of small committees to approve the new TLDs. Because of the increasing interest, a number of large organizations took over the process under the Internet Society's umbrella. This second attempt involved the setting up of a temporary organization called the International Ad Hoc Committee (IAHC). On February 4, 1997, the IAHC issued a report ignoring the Draft Postel recommendations and instead recommended the introduction of seven new gTLDs (.arts, .firm, .info, .nom, .rec, .store, and .web). However, progress on this stalled after the U.S. government intervened and nothing ever came of it.

In October 1998, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) formed to take over the task of managing domain names. After a call for proposals (August 15, 2000) and a brief period of public consultation, ICANN announced on November 16, 2000 its selection of the following seven new gTLDs:

These new gTLDs started to come into use in June 2001, and by the end of that year all except .pro existed, with .biz, .info and .museum already in full operation. .name and .coop became fully operational in January 2002, and .aero followed later in the year. .pro became a gTLD in May 2002, but did not become fully operational until June 2004.

ICANN is adding further gTLDs, starting with a set of sponsored top-level domains (like the previous .aero, .coop, and .museum). The application period for these lasted from 15 December 2003 until 16 March 2004, and resulted in ten applications. As of June 2005, ICANN had announced the approval in principle of several new TLDs, with details still being worked out and implementation still in the future:

Proposals for .mail were still under consideration. There was also a second proposal for .tel.

[edit] Unofficial TLDs and proposals

Various organizations and businesses have proposed additional TLDs, and some have created unofficial implementations of them, which are not generally functional. These include .berlin[3], .sco [4], .gal[5] and many others.

[edit] Pseudo top-level domains

Main article: pseudo top-level domain

A number of pseudo top-level domains have been defined at various times. Although these pseudo-TLDs look like top-level domains, and serve the same syntactic function in creating names for network endpoints, they have no meaning in the global Domain Name System and are (or were) used only for specialist purposes.

Although they have no official status, they are generally regarded as having been unofficially "grandfathered", and are unlikely ever to be allocated as top-level domains.

[edit] Alternative DNS roots

A number of companies have set up their own DNS systems which purport to expand or replace the official DNS root system, and thus to provide their own top-level domains. The article alternative DNS root covers these in more detail.

[edit] External links

Generic top-level domains
Unsponsored  .biz  .com  .edu  .gov  .info  .int  .mil  .name  .net  .org
Sponsored  .aero  .cat  .coop  .jobs  .mobi  .museum  .pro  .travel
Infrastructure  .arpa  .root
Startup phase  .asia  .tel
Proposed  .cym  .geo  .kid  .kids  .mail  .post  .sco  .web  .xxx
Deleted/retired  .nato
Reserved  .example  .invalid  .localhost  .test
Pseudo-domains  .bitnet  .csnet  .local  .onion  .uucp
Unofficial  see Alternative DNS roots
See also: Country code top-level domains
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