A domain name is an identification address that people use to find you or your company online. When we talk about domains, it’s  important to mention top-level domain names (TLDs). A top-level domain (TLD) is one of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System (DNS) on the Internet.

There are several types of TLDs within the DNS. TLDs with two letters (such as .au – Australia, .ca – Canada, and .de – Germany) are referred to as “country-code while most TLDs with three or more characters are referred to as “generic” TLDs (such as .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz, .pro and .name).

As the Internet grew, 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 .

.Com

The king of TLDs continues to be .com. The intended use of .com for commercial purposes has never been fully followed. Nearly everyone, from individuals to big corporate houses, who steps on the Web wishes to grab a ‘.com’ TLD at the first instance since it stands for ‘Commercial’.  It reflects that the site is for commercial purpose. However, this domain extension  is now used by almost everyone.

.Net

.Net stands for Network. This is an extension designed for use by groups with networking technologies. It’s the one of the most coveted domain extensions after ‘.com’.

.Org

The Organization extension .org is for non-profit or non-commercial character sites. Although .org was recommended for non-commercial entities, there are no restrictions to registration.

.Info

.Info stands for Information or Informative Internet resources. This TLD is mostly used by information & resource-based websites, which are not involved in commercial activities. You can use this TLD for providing information to reinforce your brand.

.Biz

The ‘.biz’ TLD stands for Business. It is intended for registration of domains to be used by businesses. Info is an unrestricted domain, meaning that anyone can obtain a second-level domain under .info for any purpose, similar to the com, net or org domains.

.Pro

The domain name .pro is a generic top-level domain in the Domain Name System of the Internet. Its name is derived from Professional, indicating its intended use by qualified professionals such as lawyers, accountants, physicians and engineers.

.Name

It is intended for use by Individuals for representation of their real names, nicknames, screen names, pseudonyms, or other personal or fictional names. These days, this domain extension is being popularly used as a web address for Digital Identity applications.

.Mobi

Its name is derived from Mobile, indicating its use by mobile devices for accessing Internet resources via the Mobile Web. This TLD is financially backed and sponsored by company’s such as   Google, Microsoft, Nokia, Samsung, Ericsson, Vodafone, T-Mobile.

.Tv

.tv is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the islands of Tuvalu. Its intended use is for all entities related to Tuvalu, whereas it’s promoted commercially for television/video sites. Tuvalu negotiated a contract leasing its Internet domain name “.tv” for $50 million in royalties over a 12-year period. It can be registered for any purpose by anyone.

.Me

The ‘.me’ TLD is yet again a country code top level domain (ccTLD) introduced in 2007 for Montenegro. This domain extension is being promoted adequately for its global use, and become more like a personal name space. It’s being marketed on the Web by the registrars as ‘.ME domains for registration by anyone’.

. Cc

A top level domain for Cocos Islands, Australia. It was introduced in 1997, and administered by VeriSign as the ‘the next .com’. This domain extension is put to different assortment of sites, some of them especially referring to Cocos Islands. The .cc domain is also preferred by many churches and Christian organizations as “CC” also happens to be the acronym for “Christian Church.”

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